Craig McRae says he will not rush Dan McStay’s comeback despite a suspected season-ending pectoral injury for Brody Mihocek and the hospitalisation of Darcy Cameron with cracked ribs on Friday night.
The Collingwood coach would not rule out McStay following rivals Will Ashcroft and Jake Melksham into making a direct return to senior level from an ACL injury but said he would not accelerate the process despite being resigned to losing Mihocek for the season.
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He said there was a “level of emotion” in the Magpies’ rooms after the loss following Mihocek’s painful injury during time-on in the final term.
It came as Cameron was taken from the MCG in an ambulance having suffered cracked ribs during the 12-point loss, which left the Magpies six points outside the top four.
“Brody looks like he’s going to need surgery – he’ll most likely be out for the season,” McRae said.
“We’ve got to get scans to officially make that the case, that’ll happen shortly.”
The coach said he was “going to have some fun” with a replacement for Mihocek, as fellow forwards Jamie Elliott, Beau McCreery and Mason Cox all remain sidelined for up to a month.
‘We’ve played some games this year without Brody … if you look back at those games (he missed with hamstring injuries), we found a way to score,” he said.
“Again it comes back to not individuals … magnets don’t win games. We’ve got more experience back in our team than we’ve had in previous weeks, but for some unknown reason in these last couple of games we’ve looked more disconnected.
“It’s not about the personnel for us. It never has been. It’s not about who’s playing, it’s how we play, so we want to get back to how we want to play.”
McRae said Isaac Quaynor would also receive scans after he was hampered by a “sore toe” during the second half of the loss and finished the game on the bench alongside Mihocek.
He said the Magpies were not in a “world of comparison” when asked if McStay could repeat the exploits of Ashcroft and Melksham this fortnight with an immediate AFL return.
The Collingwood forward suffered his knee injury at the end of November, while the Brisbane and Melbourne players went under the knife last July and August respectively.
“(Half a game in the VFL next week) is probably accurate … he’s very close, whether it’s next week or the week after,” McRae said.
“Clearly after ‘Checkers’ going down we’re probably going to need every one of our guys like Dan to be ready to present, but we’re not going to rush Dan in before he’s ready, because that doesn’t make sense.”
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McRae fiercely defended the decision to allow players to remain on the Gold Coast after round 16 loss to the Suns, with some players visiting the Wet ‘n’ Wild theme park with family members on the Sunday.
He said it had not disrupted the side’s regular preparation for the Bombers match.
“No, we reviewed the game up there, and then a group of guys stayed up and trained the next day,” he said.
“We had a day off as we normally would and were due back … half the group stayed up because they wanted to and had families and things. We won’t compromise on that.
“I’m not sure that those things would be something we’d reflect on too much, other than too say that if you walk into our environment on Monday … I guarantee you, you won’t know if we won or lost. Because we’re all about getting better.”