McPhee came immediately off the ground after injuring his hamstring and took no further part in the match. The 21-year-old had his left hamstring heavily iced for the remainder of the match.
""Adam will just go through the usual type of treatment that occurs for a hamstring type injury. Primarily it will be rest and ice in the first few days.
""John Quinn will then gradually get some mobility back into the area and then pending on the results of the MRI scan the doctors and physios will make some decisions on the degree of rehabilitation he can be involved in, in terms of movement through the muscle,"" he said.
Dean Rioli is likely to miss one more week with a hamstring injury. Cato said the club’s approach will be to attempt to win the Western Bulldogs match without the likes of Rioli and then for him to return if the team makes the finals. ""Dean has shown that he is very much a player capable of coming back and playing good football. He has terrific decision making and gets that touch back very quickly.""
In other injury news, Joe Misiti was a late withdrawal from the Sydney match with a knock to the knee. ""Joe had cortisone injected on Friday, but he didn’t quite come up. We are hoping that during the course of this week he will respond to that treatment and be available for the Bulldogs match.""
Sean Wellman got through his second match in the VFL yesterday after eight weeks on the sidelines with a hamstring injury. Wellman is likely to return to the seniors this week in place of the injured McPhee.
""The coaches have taken a conservative type approach to Sean’s comeback. It was a fairly significant tear just before the bye and he hasn’t played a lot of football,"" Cato said. ""It was a matter of giving him a few matches in the reserves to get his match fitness back that way without putting him through the real pressures of an AFL match.""
Matthew Allan is on track to return for the first week of finals, if Essendon make it. ""Matthew is running now and starting to get a fair bit of movement through the knee joint, so hopefully he will be available in the next fortnight.""
