Essendon key position prospect, Scott Gumbleton, has seen a Melbourne specialist and had scans on his hamstring which was injured during the first quarter of Saturday night's NAB Cup win against Brisbane.
The club received the scan results today (Tuesday) and will do further testing tomorrow.
High Performance Manager, John Quinn, said the injury to Gumbleton's left leg is new and is not believed to be directly related to the hamstring tear he suffered in his right leg early last year.
""We believe this is a new injury and came as a surprise because Scott had been training so well and had not had any trouble,"" Quinn said.
""The specialist and scans have confirmed what we expected - Scott will miss around four weeks of football with a grade 2 strain of the left hamstring and he will begin rehabilitation immediately.
""We will use the full resources of the club as well as consulting with specialists around Australia and we will take as much time as is needed to get this right which we are confident we will do.""
The club believes that one of the possible causes of the injury is that Gumbleton - who now stands at 198.5cm - is still growing.
""When he first got to the club he was a 196cm key position player that didn't have much conditioning.
""He is still growing while we are trying to develop power, speed and strength in his body which puts physical stress on him and can result in an injury as the body adapts to training.
""His body has gone through a lot of physical change and we have to be better at managing that to avoid future soft-tissue injuries.""
Gumbleton, who was taken with pick 2 in the 2006 national draft, was visibly upset after the injury but has picked up in spirits and is aware of what is ahead of him.
Matthew Knights said it was a disappointing injury because Gumbleton is a player the club wants to see add considerably to his five game tally in 2008.
