Port Adelaide are hopeful Ryan Burton will be back for their AFL finals assault despite the talented defender suffering another quadriceps injury.
Burton was hurt during the first quarter of the Power’s comfortable 36-point win over North Melbourne on Saturday night.
It was the 23-year-old’s second game back from an earlier quad injury that kept him out for five weeks.
“We won’t know until we get scans but he doesn’t think it’s up high where it was last time, which is a good result for us,” Power coach Ken Hinkley said.
“But we won’t make any diagnosis just now until we get the information that we need, so we’ll wait and see how it happens there.”
Burton appears set to miss the upcoming clash with Essendon and Port Adelaide are also likely to lose Zak Butters.for the Adelaide Oval contest.
Butters will come under match review officer scrutiny for a high bump on North Melbourne’s Jy Simpkin that left the midfielder dazed and saw him ruled out for the rest of the match.
“It’s not my job to sit there and pass judgement on what was right or wrong,” Hinkley said.
“I know Zak’s a tiny little fella who goes hard at the footy as best he possibly can and fair.
“You’ve seen not long after that too where (Jack) Ziebell goes running at him, he just plays it the same way all the time.
“But there’s other people that take control of that now and I should sit back and wait for them to give us an outcome.”
Hinkley backed his deep squad to cover Burton and Butters if required.
Experienced duo Brad Ebert and Justin Westhoff are among the capable Port Adelaide players ready to return after being squeezed out of the side this week.