Gold Coast young gun Matt Rowell will have scans after suffering a shoulder injury in the Suns’ AFL loss to Geelong at GMHBA Stadium.
The 19-year-old landed awkwardly on his right arm, injuring his shoulder, when he was tackled by Geelong’s Brandan Parfitt during Saturday’s opening quarter.
Rowell, the 2019 No.1 draft pick, has starred in his debut season and is the red-hot favourite to claim this year’s Rising Star Award.
The bullocking midfielder averaged 21.3 disposals, 4.8 clearances, 6.5 tackles and 1.5 goals across his previous four AFL games.
The Suns had been due to fly directly to Sydney after their 37-point loss ahead of their next two games in NSW and Rowell will join them.
“He’ll need a scan just on his shoulder,” Gold Coast coach Stuart Dew said.
“He was trying to go back on but we’ll just get it looked at. He’ll come with us to NSW and go from there.”
The Suns expect to arrive at their hotel around 1:00am on Sunday and Rowell will have scans that day, if possible, if not Monday.
Dew described Rowell’s injury as a “shame for everyone involved watching footy”.
“Regardless of what comes for him, we’ll wrap our arms around him and keep him involved,” Dew said.
“He was down on the bench in the second half with the lads.
“So although he would be quite disappointed with where he sits at the moment, team first to get around the players.”
Geelong champions Joel Selwood and Gary Ablett both approached Rowell, post-match, and Ablett, with a history of shoulder injuries, said he would reach out to the 19-year-old.
“I said to him, once he gets the results, if he wants to give me a call and talk through things, I can let him know what worked for me and what didn’t,” Ablett told reporters.
“You just hate seeing injuries like that so, hopefully, it’s not too bad and we can see him back out on the park in a couple of weeks.”
The Suns will take 29 players to NSW for games against Melbourne and Sydney, including Rowell.
“We’ll have 28 at this stage for the next couple of games and, as it sits tonight, without having too much thought of the match scenario and what lies with that, we’ve got a good mix,” Dew said.
“That’s why we brought a good mix but also left some guys back on the Gold Coast that can keep playing footy to be ready as well because we needed that – we didn’t want a lot of guys missing three games.”