ACL injury confirmed for Hawthorn's Brendan Whitecross after win over Collingwood

HAWTHORN'S Brendan Whitecross will miss the rest of the season after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament.

Brendan Whitecross

BRENDAN Whitecross will miss the rest of the season after scans confirmed he ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament in Hawthorn's qualifying final win over Collingwood on Friday night.

But the Hawks are confident they can regain Jordan Lewis (tight hamstring) and Clinton Young (calf) for its preliminary final match in just under a fortnight.

Hawthorn general manager of football operations Mark Evan said the club doctors were almost certain on Friday night that Whitecross had done his ACL, but confirmation came with scans on the morning after the match.

Evans said yesterday on SEN: "It is really bad news for Brendan because he has worked really hard. He is a terrific person and he was determined to be around his teammates and to make sure that it wasn't going to be about him.

"He was determined to have a positive demeanour and a positive impact on his teammates."

Evans said Lewis, who felt some tightness in his hamstring at training on Thursday, would have probably played if the game had been an elimination final, but the club opted to take a cautious approach.

He expects Lewis and Young, both important players in the club's structure, to be right to go for the club's next game.

"Both were close to playing (against Collingwood); they both trained (on Thursday)," Evans said.

"(Jordan) had some awareness, some tightness if you like, so we decided to leave that and see how he went (on Friday morning). But once that awareness was still there, we decided to take fit players in."

Brent Guerra continues to face a race against time to recover from his hamstring injury suffered against West Coast last week, with Evans acknowledging he has a tough road ahead but would be given every chance to test himself.

"At this time of the year he has no option bit to give it a go," Evans said. "Things look OK at the minute, but he is aware that there is still a fair bit left to do."

Evans said the bruising nature of Friday night's game meant that the week's rest for the Hawks was an ideal scenario.

"I think there are some bruised and sore boys out of that, and the week off will be very handy," he said.

It was a crushing night for Whitecross, who watched from the stands as a first-year player when Hawthorn won the premiership in 2008.

But even with his flag hopes dashed, Whitecross remained a positive influence on the bench during the fierce battle against the Magpies.

It caught defender Josh Gibson's attention with the former North Melbourne player quick to praise him this morning.
 
"His mindset during the game when he got injured, he was just all for the team and really positive," Gibson said.

"That is the type of bloke he is.

"It will be sad to see him go down."

Gibson said Whitecross would be a big loss for the Hawks. 

"His work rate on game day and all that is phenomenal," he said.

"But it is also the work he does with his younger guys as well, he's a real leader amongst them."