Luckless Geelong midfielder Nakia Cockatoo has been booked in for knee surgery, meaning his 2018 AFL campaign is almost certainly over.
The gifted Cockatoo has been limited to only 34 senior matches in the best part of four seasons due to a string of hamstring and knee injuries, with the most recent one suffered at VFL level last weekend.
"He does require surgery and that's going to make things difficult for him this year we suspect although we won't really know until the procedure is done," Geelong coach Chris Scott told reporters on Thursday.
"It's a very similar injury to the one he did in round three this year.
"It's a similar part of the knee and a similar mechanism as well in that it was contact force from an opposition player as opposed to anything structurally deficient in his knee.
"We just have to chalk that one down to bad luck again and try to stay as optimistic as possible that he can come back and be the player that he was promising to be.
"... he's a really powerful fast-twitch athlete and some of his soft tissue concerns have been a reflection of that.
"But really the last two injuries could have happened to anyone."
In better news for the eight-placed Cats, key defender Lachie Henderson will play his first AFL match of the year against sixth-placed Melbourne on Saturday night after overcoming a serious knee complaint.
His return is particularly timely as Melbourne have two tall forwards in excellent form - Jesse Hogan and Tom McDonald.
But fellow Cats key backman Harry Taylor will be sidelined for at least one more week with a foot problem.
"He has had a well-documented plantar fascia injury and this is different to that," Scott said.
"It's in the same foot and the area but more related to a tendon."
