Western Bulldogs' defender Matt Suckling expects to be able to play in round two despite rolling his ankle when the turf at Marvel Stadium gave way underneath his right foot as the left-footer kicked the ball in the first quarter of the win against the Sydney Swans on Saturday night.
The 30-year-old admitted it was "obviously not a nice feeling" when the turf shifted underneath his leg but he did not criticise the state of the ground.
Matt Suckling says he'll be right to play round two.Credit:AAP
The Bulldogs' football operations manager Ben Graham spoke to ground staff at the quarter-time break and divots were filled in and players did not appear to have an issue for the remainder of the game.
Suckling was not too concerned post-game, saying the ground was in reasonable shape and he imagined it was just an isolated patch of turf that shifted.
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"It's obviously not a nice feeling when the ground slips but the ground was in pretty good nick and hopefully it is just a one off," he said.
Suckling left the ground for a short period after the incident but returned to finish the game with 22 disposals and eight rebounds from the defensive 50 with his lethal left foot as penetrating as ever.
"The ground gave way and I rolled my ankle but I managed to play the game out so it's probably only something I will have to manage early in the week," Suckling said.
"The good sign is that I played the game with no limitation so it should be fine."
Western Bulldogs' coach Luke Beveridge said the 30-year-old premiership Hawk had "tweaked" his ankle but he expected him to be fine for next week's clash against his former club.
Beveridge said he didn't see the incident involving Suckling and was never worried about the turf during the game.
"I didn't see it so I didn't know whether it was a surface thing or what actually happened. He just jammed it a little bit. He hasn't said anything about the surface so I think it is OK," Beveridge said.
He said none of the players had expressed any concern about the turf and he thought the ground's surface was fine while Swans' coach John Longmire was not perturbed.
However former Geelong skipper Cameron Ling said on Channel Seven after the game the issue needed to be addressed.
"They have got to get that right. This is an elite level footballer. You can't have key players getting injured because of the grass," Ling said.
Meanwhile Beveridge said the Bulldogs were pleased to hold on when the Swans' roared back into the game to draw wRead More
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