The bad news keeps coming for beleaguered Collingwood, with Travis Varcoe's AFL return delayed by an injury setback.
But Essendon captain Dyson Heppell made light of a cut hand, blaming it on a kitchen accident, and said he would play on Sunday against West Coast.
Varcoe suffered a hamstring injury in the round-six win over Collingwood.
Collingwood football manager Geoff Walsh told the club website that Varcoe had "a slight setback" at Tuesday training.
"We will slow down the recovery in his rehab process just to ensure we get a really clean recovery," Walsh said.
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"It will set him back a couple of weeks.
"We will assess that, probably, the week after next on how quickly he is improving, but we will ensure that we get a clean recovery before we give him the all-clear."
They have lost key defender Ben Reid for several weeks with a quad muscle injury.
While the Magpies expect him to be out of action for three to four weeks, Walsh warned it could be "four-plus".
Collingwood should regain Adam Treloar from an ankle injury, but key forward Jesse White injured a hamstring in the VFL.
Meanwhile, Heppell's birthday dinner became a painful exercise when he cut his hand in the kitchen.
The onballer had a bandage on his left hand at training.
"The other night on my birthday, I was defrosting some steaks in the microwave, went to grab the plate out of the microwave and dropped it. Got the fumbles," Heppell told the club website.
"I went to catch it again and the plate had smashed on the bench and I put a good gouge in my hand.
"I rang the doc straight away and he got a couple of stitches to fix the hand."
Heppell said he would be "cherry ripe" to play the Eagles.
