BOMBER Scott Lucas looks likely to miss Essendon’s round 19 clash against the West Coast Eagles on Sunday as he struggles to recover from a combination of knee soreness and back problems.
Essendon coach Matthew Knights said the forward was only a “50-50” prospect.
“Scott did a bit of training on Monday he was okay but not sensational,” Knights said.
“If he’s not right I’m not going to play him. I thought he would be a definite starter, but it doesn’t look as likely now.”
Knights delivered more bad news for Bomber fans, explaining that Kyle Reimers would also miss the clash with the Eagles.
“Kyle will definitely miss. He has got a slightly strained hamstring. We believe he’ll miss two weeks.”
Knights listed Courtney Dempsey and Heath Hocking as possible replacements for the injured pair.
“They’ve shown a little bit at AFL level, I wouldn’t say they’ve shown a lot but they’ve shown enough to suggest that if we brought them into the team they’d handle themselves well.”
Knights also revealed that Mark McVeigh is about three more weeks away from making a return from his knee injury.
“With the smaller knee operations they can be anywhere between three and six. Three is great because he can move quickly in his rehab. Sometimes they are six, if they’re a bit slower, so we’re thinking somewhere in the five to six range.”
Despite the Eagles’ poor form this year, Knights said he wouldn’t be expecting an easy game this weekend.
“They, potentially, when they get moving and that crowd gets going over there, they’re very formidable so we need to go there and play at our maximum.
“We played a strong game against Fremantle but only won by a small margin so it’s a big game for us. I’ve been in this industry long enough to know that if you underestimate people, you get smacked.”