Melbourne are breathing a collective sigh of relief after star ruckman Max Gawn limped out of Saturday's loss to Geelong with a hamstring injury.
It's not often an injury to a key player is cause for relief, but Gawn looked to have suffered a serious, possibly season-ending, knee injury as he forlornly trudged off the Etihad Stadium turf in the second quarter of the Cats' 20.6 (126) to 13.19 (97) win.
"Initially it was either going to be his knee or his hamstring and thankfully it was his hamstring," coach Simon Goodwin said.
"From what we gather it's just a standard hamstring (injury).
"Normally they're four weeks (out) so we'll be without the big fella for a while.
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"We'll have to find a way to come up with something that's going to work over the next few weeks ... he's a big part of our team."
While relieved at Gawn's initial diagnosis, Goodwin was frustrated by his team's shocking kicking for goal in their first loss of the season.
"We just had a really bad day (in front of goal) ... it hasn't been a problem (previously)," he said.
"We had a bad day and I think when you get five or six players missing it becomes the effect where everyone starts to miss and that's what we saw today.
"It was frustrating. Clearly you've got to kick your goals to win games of footy and we didn't do that.
"I thought we played well enough to win the game but ultimately Geelong deserved to win."
Gawn will undergo scans to confirm the severity of the injury to his right hamstring.
