Essendon full forward Matthew Lloyd has left hospital this morning and is resting at home after having surgery to repair a broken bone in his forearm. Lloyd was operated on early yesterday morning after sustaining the injury in a marking contest against Geelong in Bendigo on Friday night. He is hopeful of returning for Essendon’s Round 3 match against Hawthorn.

""He fractured the ulna which is the smaller of the two major bones in the forearm. He has had a plate inserted to stabilise the bone and everything went as planned. It is a four-to-five week injury so given we are still a couple of weeks away from the first game we are hopeful of getting him back in Round 3,"" Essendon club doctor Bruce Reid said.

Lloyd left the ground almost immediately after the marking contest knowing something was wrong. He was treated inside the Essendon rooms before heading to a local hospital to have an X-ray that confirmed the fracture.