Tom Bellchambers will have an MRI on his knee today to determine the extent of the injury sustained during yesterday's clash with Geelong.
The giant back-up ruckman limped from the ground late in the third quarter and is believed to have damaged his meniscal cartilage.
Adam McPhee told media this morning that the club is confident the injury isn't as bad as first thought but the full extent of the damage is unknown.
He said the club hopes Bellchambers, 19, will only miss only a few weeks and will be back supporting Paddy Ryder in the ruck soon rather than later.
“At this stage we don’t know the full extent of his injury, he will get an MRI scan today and hopefully it won’t be as bad as what was first expected,” McPhee said.
“He might miss a couple of weeks but we don’t think it’s as bad as we first thought it was. We will know more about it later today after his scan.”
The injury causes some selection headaches for the Bombers with fellow ruckmen David Hille out for the season with a ruptured ACL and Jason Laycock failing to play for Bendigo yesterday after pulling up sore from his return game the previous week.
Cale Hooker is an option to support Ryder but with key backmen Michael Hurley out with a fractured wrist bone and Dustin Fletcher also still in doubt, he might have to remain in defence.
""I might have to go into the ruck,"" McPhee joked.
Coming off a disappointing loss to Geelong, McPhee believes that the Bombers simply didn’t perform to their best on the day but thinks there are many lessons his side can take away from the game.
“We probably let ourselves down with our kicking efficiency and the way we moved the ball forward,"" he said.
""I know they zoned most of the day rather than just on kick ins and that is something we can learn from.
“They were a stronger bodied side then us, they probably taught us a bit of a lesson. Hopefully we can learn from the game then move on to Adelaide this week.
“We’ll probably harp [on the loss] for 24 hours then move on. We need to learn what we can from the game and focus on those areas but then try and take as many positives as we can too.”
