Star Hawthorn recruit Jaeger O'Meara could be out of AFL action for several weeks as he deals with an ongoing knee injury.
O'Meara has bone bruising and he was a late withdrawal from Sunday's three-point win against Melbourne at the MCG.
Hawks football manager Jason Burt has said in a pre-match statement that O'Meara would go through a training block before he returns to their senior team.
And after the match, coach Alastair Clarkson revealed the Hawks are unsure how long O'Meara will be out of action.
O'Meara played the opening three rounds after being recruited from the Gold Coast, but the bone bruising forced him to sit out two games.
The 23-year-old returned for last weekend's big loss to St Kilda, where the problem flared again.
When asked if he could say how long O'Meara would be sidelined this time, Clarkson replied: "I wish I could.
"We thought when he first got that knock to his knee (this season)... he was going to play the next week.
"Strangely enough, despite his training, sometimes you need to get in to full game intensity to determine whether you're really, really comfortable with it.
"He just didn't feel totally comfortable, particularly in the second half (against St Kilda).
Hawthorn will now put O'Meara through a block of training to ensure he is fully fit when he returns to the AFL.
The Hawks have said repeatedly that O'Meara's current knee injury is separate to the problem that sidelined him for the past two seasons on the Gold Coast.
"He's now missed a fair slab of footy over the last month or so, it's probably worthwhile just saying 'okay, let's keep check on this and do a little bit of a conditioning block'," Clarkson said.
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