Sam Lalor likely to miss rest of 2025 with hamstring concerns
Adelaide is sweating the result of a knee injury to livewire forward Josh Rachele, while The injury list at Richmond continues to get longer with Sam Lalor’s season seemingly over.
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Matthew Nicks’ delight at what he described as a huge win in the context of Adelaide’s season was tempered by concerns over a potentially serious knee injury suffered by star forward Josh Rachele on Sunday.
The out-of-sorts Crows were pushed all the way by Simon Goodwin’s men, who led by as much as 28 points, before an inspired five-goal haul by Izak Rankine propelled the home side to a gritty 13-point win at Adelaide Oval.
Rachele was subbed out of the game after landing awkwardly on his left leg late in the first half and Nicks gave little away when asked about his prognosis after the game.
“It’s one that we’re really mindful of not making any big statements around because we don’t know,” Nicks said.
“We won’t know until he has a scan, but it was enough of a concern that we had to sub him out.
“And without going into any more detail, it’s going to be a scan and our fingers are crossed.
“I haven’t seen him as yet, but I’d say he’d be pretty disappointed, as you can imagine.
“But we’ll just hope for the best … we’ll have positive thoughts.”
Meanwhile, Richmond No. 1 overall pick Sam Lalor’s season is likely over given his history of serious hamstring concerns in another nightmare weekend of injuries for the Tigers.
On Sunday in the VFL Taj Hotton’s third consecutive polished display put him in line for an AFL debut and Jayden Short got through his return from a calf injury.
But key forward Jacob Bauer suffered a suspected ACL tear, only weeks after Judson Clarke’s third ACL tear.
Lalor lasted only minutes in his comeback from hamstring concerns against Geelong, injuring the left hamstring that had tendon damage last year.
All of his hamstring injuries have been to the left hamstring.
Richmond will be keen to rule out more tendon damage for Lalor but he is likely to be shut down for the season regardless of the diagnosis given his second hamstring concern of the year.
Surgery is a possibility for Lalor if those scans reveal tendon damage.
Lalor is the third of Richmond’s high draft picks to suffer hamstring concerns this year with Harry Armstrong about to return from his own hamstring tendon injury.
The club’s No. 7 draft pick Josh Smillie is still a week or two away after a conditioning phase after his hamstring injury in the VFL.
Richmond had given Lalor five weeks off and held him back last week when he was medically ticked off to ensure he was fit to take on Geelong.
Lalor played only four Coates Talent League games and missed testing at the national combine given a left hamstring tendon injury last year.
So Richmond will have to find a way to strengthen his hamstrings to ensure it does not become a career-long issue.
Richmond has Noah Balta out for the next two weeks given his court-ordered curfew.
Richmond takes on Essendon at 7.35pm next week, then plays West Coast in an 8.10pm game in Perth the following week.
His court order which prevents him from being out past 10pm expires after round 19 on July 22.
Port Adelaide is expected to confirm on Monday that Sam Powell-Pepper has suffered a season-ending ACL tear with the dynamic forward to undergo scans late on Sunday night.
Powell-Pepper had surgery last year on his right ACL but had rebounded this year to play 15 games.
He suffered a suspected left ACL tear while attempting to wheel around in a tight turning circle on the Gabba but saw his knee crumple.
The Power is now out of finals contention but coach Ken Hinkley was crestfallen to have lost the heart-and-soul Power forward.
“Sam obviously looks like an ACL. Clearly we’ll get the scan back over the next couple of days, but that’s really, really sad, and when I think about that it gets a bit sadder for me because it’s my last game of coaching Sam, and he’s been such a great player for me.
“It’s really difficult when you have someone that you really care about (and) see that happen to them for the second time on the other leg.”
Powell-Pepper had celebrated the birth of a new baby this week so it was a cruel blow for the 27-year-old.
“He’s had a new baby, and he has to deal with that (injury), but in typical Pep fashion, he’ll deal with it,” Hinkley said.
“He’ll have a couple of days where it’ll be pretty tough, and he’ll be back.”
He said Esava Ratugolea’s hamstring concern seemed a garden-variety injury that could keep him out for up to a month.
But it is another blow given Ratugolea had been in career-best form as an intercept marking defender.
The club will also assess back-up ruckman Dante Visentini for an ankle injury that saw him unable to return to the ground.
St Kilda’s Jimmy Webster suffered a calf injury in the loss to Hawthorn and will have scans to assess the damage.
He came off Marvel Stadium in the second quarter and was replaced by Brad Hill.
St Kilda hopes Zaine Cordy will be ready to return from a pectoral tear next week, with Mattaes Phillipou 2-3 weeks away with a calf complaint.
Essendon is sweating on ankle scans for midfielder Jye Caldwell after he could not finish the clash against Gold Coast.
The club will be hopeful Mason Redman (ankle) is available against Richmond but Caldwell will be assessed during the week.
“Jye rolled his ankle. It was sore enough that six minutes to go we didn’t want to put him back on. We will have that scanned and when we have scans at the moment its usually not a good thing.”
Xavier Duursma had a back spasm before the game but he was able to take part in the loss to the Suns.
Originally published as Sam Lalor likely to miss rest of 2025 with hamstring concerns
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