Adelaide Crows star Josh Rachele avoids ACL tear, Sam Lalor likely to miss rest of 2025

The Crows are breathing a sigh of relief on Monday after young star Josh Rachele received good news on his left knee. But the injury could still disrupt Adelaide’s run home.

Adelaide small forward Josh Rachele has avoided an anterior crucial ligament rupture in a relief for the Crows.

But the club is still determining the extent of the 22-year-old’s knee injury, sustained during the home victory over Melbourne on Sunday.

Scans cleared Rachele of ligament damage but Adelaide was unsure how long he would be sidelined.

The Crows are expected to provide an update in the next few hours.

Adelaide has seven more games before finals, so anything sidelining him for longer than that will be jeopardise his major-round availability.

Josh Rachele goes down with a knee injury on Sunday. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty Images.

But the young Crow has avoided an ACL tear. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty Images.

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.”

Injury latest: Young Tiger’s cruel blow

– Jon Ralph

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.

Lalor was lost early in the clash against the Cats. Picture: James Wiltshire/AFL Photos via Getty Images

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.

Noah Balta will miss the next two weeks. Picture: James Wiltshire/AFL Photos via Getty Images

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.

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.

Jye Caldwell limps off against the Suns. Picture: Graham Denholm/AFL Photos/via Getty Images

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.