Star Western Bulldogs defender Easton Wood has a high-grade hamstring injury, but is a chance to play in the AFL finals if the Dogs make it.
Wood suffered the injury during the Dogs' win over Brisbane and it was initially feared he would require season-ending surgery.
Scans on Monday confirmed the severity of the injury, but in a silver lining for the 2016 premiership captain, he will not go under the surgeon's knife.
"We've worked through a process which has included specialist opinion and we've decided that the best form of management will be conservative management, and that Easton does not require surgery," Bulldogs' head physiotherapist Chris Bell said.
"We've started our rebab programming already and hope to have Easton running at the back end of this week."
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The win over the Lions was the Dogs' fourth in a row and lifted them to seventh on the ladder with an 11-8 record.
Jason Johannisen was a late withdrawal at the Gabba but could return for Friday night's huge clash with Greater Western Sydney at Etihad Stadium.
"In the warm-up prior to the game Jason reported some hamstring tightness," Bell said.
"Jason is a real high speed athlete, so we weren't prepared to take any risk with these symptoms so we withdrew him from the game.
"JJ's come in really well (on Monday) and we'll work through a process with him this week to determine if he's available to play this weekend."
The Dogs could also regain goal kicker Jake Stringer, who hasn't played since round 17 when he suffered a hamstring injury.
"Jake has continued to show great progress ... he completed a game-like training session on the weekend and has pulled up really well," Bell said.
"If Jake ticks the boxes this week with training he'll be available to play."
