The West Coast Eagles will await scans on Jai Culley’s knee but fear the Rising Star nominee has ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament.

Culley had to be subbed out in the opening quarter of Saturday’s loss to Richmond at the MCG.

“Don’t know yet but it’s a potential ACL. We’ll wait and see. It doesn’t look great, but nothing has been confirmed,” coach Adam Simpson said post-match.

Already reeling from a long injury list, losing the emerging talent for 12 months would be a huge blow as the Eagles transition their squad.

“He’s done so much to get to where he is and he’s at the start of his career, so if it is to be (an ACL) it’s going to be a pretty big setback for him,” Simpson said of last year’s No.1 pick in the mid-season rookie draft.

“That’s the brutality of our game, unfortunately. Sometimes it doesn’t go your way.”

Despite a 46-point loss, Simpson could see signs of the gamestyle the team is trying to implement in the face of adversity on the availability front.

West Coast fought against a flood of inside 50s (65-33) and a significant contested possession deficit (-23) to take the lead midway through the third quarter, but couldn’t sustain the effort late in the match as the margin blew out.

“We obviously needed to respond from last week. For the most part we think the effort has been there this year and with what’s happening to our club at the moment it’s been a real challenge to win,” Simpson said.

“The things we chase we saw in the first quarter. We couldn’t sustain it, but we hung in there and we hit the front halfway through the third.

“Then Richmond responded and then we got overwhelmed at certain points in the last quarter and a half.

“We actually thought we had the game on our terms to a certain degree at certain stages, we just didn’t capitalise.

“Some fundamentals kicked in and then Richmond’s good players got on top.”

The Eagles have a six-day break before facing Gold Coast at home on Friday night.