Aaron Sandilands avoided suspension for a high bump in last weeks game but he has knocked himself out of this weeks game against Collingwood from the hit anyway.
The giant ruckman clashed heads with Sam Durdin with the bump and suffered a concussion that will rule him out of the match against Collingwood on Sunday afternoon at the MCG.
Aaron Sandilands leaves the field after his head clash last weekend.
Photo: AAP
That alone would be a significant blow for the Dockers but it was also confirmed they will also be without classy running player Stephen Hill, who has suffered another quad strain.
Hill missed round one with quad and calf issues and then missed two weeks with a quad injury before returning to play the Kangaroos. This injury is to the quadriceps of his other leg.
Collingwood ruck Brodie Grundy is in excellent form and with tall American Mason Cox in the team the Magpies also had the rare opponent who could match Sandilands for height, if not bulk.
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The loss of the ruckman and the classy wingman are damaging blows for the Dockers, who have struggled this year.
The Magpies have won their past two games and sit eighth with six wins. A victory over the Dockers this week would take them into Queen's Birthday against Melbourne still the underdogs but at least with some momentum.
Dockers coach Ross Lyon ruled Sandilands out of the game after the ruckman's struggle to recover from the head knock.
"He's not in great shape. He's a bit sore and sorry for himself today, so he definitely won't play this week," Lyon told 6PR radio.
"And then he's been such a great warrior for us that we'll be conservative with him and give him every chance to come back healthy.
"We're fortunate, in a sense, that Michael Apeness, Luke Strnadica and Jonesy (Scott Jones) and Lloyd Meek are all available.
"Michael Apeness has had a horrific run with injury over the last four years but he's starting to get a little bit of continuity and the other boys are whacking away.
"We'll have to do it through match committee, but there's probably a few line-ball decisions there."
Michael Gleeson is a senior AFL football writer and Fairfax Media's athletics writer. He also covers tennis, cricket and other sports. He won the AFL Players Association Grant Hattam Trophy for excellence in journalism for the second time in 2014 and was a finalist in the 2014 Quill Awards for best sports feature writer. He was also a finalist in the 2014 Australian Sports Commission awards for his work on Boots for Kids. He is a winner of the AFL Media Association award for best news reporter and a two-time winner of Cricket Victorias cricket writer of the year award. Michael has covered multiple Olympics, Commonwealth Games and world championships and 15 seasons of AFL, He has also written seven books – five sports books and two true crime books.
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