Essendon hard-nut Andrew Welsh sustained a minor fracture in his hand in the first quarter of the Round 1 match against Port Adelaide. The 21-year-old had surgery on his hand on Monday and will miss this Saturday night’s match against St.Kilda. ""Andrew has his hand strapped at the moment to protect the affected area. We expect him to return to training next week and be available for Round 3 against West Coast,"" football operations manager Dominic Cato said.

""Luckily for Andrew the injury was not a break. If he had broken his hand he would have missed up to six weeks. Andrew has a full pre-season under his belt, so there won’t be any issues about his fitness when he returns,"" Cato said.