Hawthorn's trade gamble on Jaeger O'Meara hasn't paid off in the short term, with the luckless star unlikely to play again this season after suffering a fresh injury.
And in a further blow to the struggling Hawks, veteran defender Josh Gibson has been ruled out for up to a month with an adductor strain.
O'Meara has not played since round six due to bone bruising in his right knee - the knee that kept him sidelined for the past two seasons at Gold Coast.
The 23-year-old ruptured a patella tendon and suffered several setbacks with the Suns before switching clubs during last year's trade period.
O'Meara had been expected to complete a mini pre-season and return to playing after last week's bye but his return is unclear after the Hawks revealed the new problem.
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"What's happening with Jaeger is we've identified he's got his bone stress in his patella," club performance manager Andrew Russell said on Tuesday.
"This is a new issue, it's different to what we've had to deal with before with him, which is good."
After playing 44 games in his first two seasons at Gold Coast, O'Meara played four games with his new club before he was cruelled by these new problems.
With 10 games remaining and the Hawks languishing in 17th, it would seem highly unlikely the club would risk their prized recruit again this season.
But Russell remains optimistic.
"Any bone, when you have bone stress, it recovers but we have to wait until that fully settles down," he said.
"At this stage we're preparing him to play later in the season but we'll be monitoring that really closely."
Gibson played all 12 games before Hawthorn's bye last week but suffered an injury in their round-12 loss to Gold Coast.
"He's settling down well, he's back running, but he's probably going to miss two to four weeks at this stage," Russell said.
In better news for the Hawks, Grant Birchall (knee) is available to face Adelaide on Thursday night and Ben Stratton (knee) is set to return the week after.
