Christian Petracca reveals playing Essendon could have cost him his finger, Christian Salem injured

ANOTHER Demon named Christian, another finger injury. Melbourne has been dealt another injury blow with Christian Salem needing surgery, while Christian Petracca’s return remains uncertain.

CHRISTIAN Petracca has revealed that playing against Essendon could have cost him his finger.

Petracca, 22, missed Sunday’s win over the Bombers and has had two bouts of surgery on the middle finger on his left hand after a bite from his dog became infected.

And the Demons young gun has admitted if he hadn’t seen a doctor when he did — having taken himself to emergency after he consulted with his doctor on Anzac Day — things could have become a lot worse.

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“If I didn’t see the doctor at the same time as what I did and let it grow for a bit more, then (amputating it) was an option,” Petracca said.

“Obviously I wasn’t a chance to play against Essendon at all. If I was, there was a potential chance of doing serious damage.

“I’d rather miss a game or two than potentially lose my finger.”

Demon Christian Petracca has declared himself a “50-50 chance” of playing against St Kilda this week. Picture: Michael Klein

The forward said he considered himself a chance to play against St Kilda on Sunday, but said a major hurdle is the fact that he had been limited in his training ability since he was struck down.

“I really want to play,” he told Fox Sports News.

“I want to play every game and it’s up to the docs and the medical and the physio staff to see what they think.

“At the moment it’s just all about doing everything right, being diligent with my antibiotics and having that every day.

“That’s the probably other problem, that I haven’t done much for five days.

“I’ve been for a fair few walks … but I haven’t really done much solid running.

“Hopefully (I’ll) do a light jog (today) and a light running session and a bit of leg weights and we’ll see how I pull up and from there see what happens.”

And fear not - he’s still “friends” with the canine culprit.

Christian Salem had his left thumb strapped in Sunday’s win over Essendon after injuring it before halftime. Picture: AAP Image

The Demons were dealt a further injury blow with Christian Salem ruled out of Sunday’s clash with St Kilda after needing surgery on a broken thumb.

Salem, 22, suffered the injury during Sunday’s win over Essendon but club fitness boss Dave Misson said he was hopeful that the emerging Demon would only miss one game.

“He’s not sure how he did it, but it happened in the second quarter of the game,” Misson said.

“He had a guard put on it at half-time and re-strapped it — we didn’t want it injected, because we felt that it was going to affect his ability to handle the ball.

“He had a scan (on Monday) morning, which showed he had a fracture at the base of his thumb.

“He had an operation to stabilise that fracture, so he’s going to need to be reviewed post-op to see how the wound’s going.”

Star midfielder Jordan Lewis missed just one game following surgery on a broken hand, which Misson said provided a timeline the Demons hoped to follow with Salem.

“We’re hoping it’s going to be a similar time frame to Jordy Lewis and we’ll try and turn him around in a week,” he told the club website.

“Being the thumb, it’s probably a little bit different to Jordy’s, but we’ll just see how he is later in the week.”

Key forward Jesse Hogan suffered a knee knock and rolled his ankle in the win over Essendon, and will be assessed later in the week.

“He’s looking OK, but he’s got a little bit of work to do,” Misson said.

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