Luke Parker in hot water over off the ball hit that hospitalised opponent

A Sydney Swans star is staring down the barrel of a lengthy suspension after a sickening hit that hospitalised an opponent.

Sydney Swans veteran Luke Parker could be staring down the barrel of a lengthy suspension following an off the ball hit in the VFL.

During Friday night’s contest against Frankston, the Swans star ran past the ball and elected to bump opponent Josh Smith.

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The brutal second half bump floored Smith and left him crumpled up on the turf of Kinetic Stadium.

The hit came more than five metres off the ball as play was brought to a halt shortly after as trainers helped Smith from the field.

The Frankston player was sent to hospital after suffering serious facial injuries as a result of the hit from Parker.

The Herald Sun’s Jon Ralph wrote: “This doesn’t look good for Luke Parker. You bump, you are responsible for the contact. Frankston’s Josh Smith sent to hospital with a cheekbone injury.”

Any suspension handed down will mean Parker’s potential return to the AFL will be delayed having failed to crack Sydney’s side after a solid month with the reserves since recovering from injury.

Luke Parker delivers off the ball hit in the VFL on Friday night. Credit: AFL

“I see him getting back into the team at some point,” Kate McCarthy said on Channel 7’s Armchair Experts on Friday night.

“I would have thought with (Robbie) Fox’s injury, that would be next week.

“But from what we saw from the grainy footage, I believe that he will face a fair bit of scrutiny for that one.

“It was an off-the-ball block, he’s got him, the ball’s gone past where he is, and then he’s copped him high.

“From everything we’ve seen so far this year, that’s definitely going to be at least a week, which would mean he’s out of the team for another week, but I’d say it’s more than that.”

Adam Cooney said it would be more than a week.

“Eight, nine years ago, you would have called it a perfect shepherd for the guy coming through. Now, you know you can’t do that,” he said.

“It was just so unnecessary and if the injuries that are rumoured to be true, he’s going to face a few weeks on the sidelines — which is unfortunate, because with the Fox injury, there was a spot opening up that he possibly could have come in (to).”

Josh Smith was taken to hospital after the hit. Credit: AFL

Despite the Parker incident, the Swans continued their premiership form by dismantling Carlton on Friday night.

After the Blues kicked the first four goals at the SCG, the Swans ran riot as the home side kicked 17 goals to five the rest of the way to march to a 17.15 (117) to 9.11 (65) thrashing that had experts and fans alike reaching for superlatives.

With Brownlow Medal favourite Isaac Heeney, best on ground Chad Warner and the ridiculously skilful Errol Gulden leading the way, four-time premiership-winning Hawk Jordan Lewis made an enormous statement on Fox Footy.

“The one thing they have on their side is age,” Lewis said after the 52-point win. “Heeney’s 28, Warner is 22, Gulden is 21.

“They’re already in the conversation of the best players in the AFL at the age they are at.

“That’s the thing, if they can build on that, get people around them like they are, they could possibly be the best combination of the modern era.”

Originally published as Luke Parker in hot water over off the ball hit that hospitalised opponent