WARNING: GRAPHIC
An AFL great has called the grim scenes involving Harrison Jones “an error”, with the injured Essendon forward needing the stretcher after a gruesome ankle injury late in the third quarter of the Bombers’ narrow win at Marvel Stadium.
Near the far-side boundary line, Jones landed extremely awkwardly as he attempted a contested mark, with his left ankle completely giving way as the bone appeared to snap.
Agonising and in the hands of trainers, Jones had to wait more than a bit of time for a stretcher as the final third-quarter moments were “bizarrely” allowed to play out.
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“They’ve let play go on there, with the stretcher coming on now (after the final play),” Fox Footy caller Matt Hill said.
“That’s bizarre,” dual flag-winner David King said in reaction.
“I mean, if the stretcher’s coming on the field, the game stops. That’s an error.”
Fellow Fox caller Mark Howard added: “It was unusual to see play restart after we heard ‘stop, we need the stretcher’.”
Speaking after the match, Bombers coach Brad Scott praised the umpires for their actions in the moment.
“I can’t remember a game where the umpires have come over to our huddle at three-quarter-time and just said ‘Look, this might take a while’,” he shared.
“It was actually pretty handy for us as we needed to make some pretty significant adjustments so the extra couple of minutes helped us.
“You look across and you’re a couple of players down, you have to reshuffle players into positions that are not their primary or secondary roles. I thought the players were pretty calmed and composed in that situation.”
At three-quarter-time, Herald Sun journalist Jon Ralph provided an update on the condition of Jones.
“Horrible scenes here as Harrison Jones (was) taken off in a medical cart. The entire Essendon medical fraternity attempted to comfort him there,” he said on Fox Footy.
“It feels like that left ankle buckles on him — they’ll be really worried about a fractured ankle.
“Really sombre scenes here as the Essendon players looking on as he was finally taken off on the medical cart.
Ralph later said at full-time scans would reveal the full damage of the injury, with Jones off to hospital while in a “fair bit of pain”.
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“There is potentially good news, and I say potentially, I just spoke to the Essendon football boss Daniel McPherson so the ankle was badly dislocated. You could see there it was at right angles,” Ralph said.
“… Unfortunately for him the worst case scenario would be a fractured ankle and yet the best case is it gets back into its socket and he potentially misses multiple weeks. The scans will tell the tale about the secondary damage there.”
He’s the third Essendon tall to go down in a matter of weeks following the achilles injury to Sam Draper and the ACL to Nick Bryan.
It came on an injury-heavy Thursday night, with both of Jackson Archer and Jordan Ridley feared to have suffered considerable hamstring injuries.
Bomber Jade Gresham also failed to see out the final term due to a suspected groin issue.
“Jordan Ridley, it looks like he’d be out for a month or so – a second reoccurrence of the hamstring injury he suffered in January,” Ralph explained.
“A hard tackle, he went down – he knew very quickly that was a hamstring concern.
“Jade Gresham only played four minutes in the last quarter and so that’s a groin concern you’d think would see him missing next week against Sydney.
“(Archer) knows he’s in strife.
“He’s just had a horror year.”
Luckily for the Roos, there’s a host of players with AFL experience ready to step back into the fray including George Wardlaw who missed the loss to Essendon due to a “savage” corkie.
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