Essendon key-position player Cale Hooker has refused to blame early injuries for the Bombers’ ANZAC Day loss to Collingwood.

Essendon was ravaged by injuries to forwards Josh Begley (knee) and Josh Green (hamstring) early in the clash against the Magpies before falling to a disappointing 49-point defeat.

While Hooker admitted losing the pair hurt the side throughout the game, he said it is a part of the sport every team must be able to overcome.

“It’s obviously very disappointing for those guys and disappointing for the team to lose them early,” Hooker said post-match on Wednesday.

“We can’t use that as an excuse, it does hurt having two fewer rotations, but it’s a game of footy – these things happen and we just have to guts it out.”

The Bombers trailed by 30 points at the final change before Collingwood quickly piled on the first three goals of the last term, and Hooker said that start to the final quarter was the biggest let down of the day.

“We’re obviously very disappointed with our performance. (It’s a) credit to Collingwood for really stepping it up and bringing a good pressure game,” he said.

“I think the most disappointing part was the start of the last quarter. We still had a chance to take the game to them and they stepped it up.”

With another tough contest against Melbourne set for just four days after the loss, Hooker said while the ANZAC Day loss would be reviewed there was no time to dwell on the game.

“We’re a team; we win and lose together. We’ve got a game in four days and I think it’s a good thing we’ve got a game in four days, it will give us a chance to bounce back together.

“We’ll definitely review it tomorrow, take some key learnings out of it and then we’ll have to recover as best we can. 

“Melbourne is in the same boat as us, they’ve got a short break coming off a loss, so we’ll have to bring our best game.”