The West Coast Eagles managed to secure their first away victory on the weekend, but the sight of star forward Josh Kennedy hobbling to the bench put a dampener on the valuable 38-point Sunday win.
A later shot exhibited Kennedy with a bag of ice strapped to his right calf, an injury which Eagles fans are hoping won’t sideline him for the weekend’s Crows clash.
“It started to tighten up a bit in that first quarter, I didn’t know if I got a knock, can’t remember an incident of a corky or anything, we had wrapped it up and it felt alright during the game,” Kennedy explained to 6PR.
“Towards the back end it started to really tighten up a little bit and I thought I might as well come off and get it assessed.
“I can’t really remember an incident of a corky in the first quarter, it just kind of started to get tight, so I’m hoping there was a knock somewhere along that line which made it tight, but if not it might be a little strain.”
While teammates took to the track today, Kennedy was limited to walking laps after receiving a scan yesterday evening.
The club are expecting the report back today.
“I’m hoping to (play against Adelaide). I’m feeling okay, I’m walking around, I don’t really feel it walking around, so I’ve got to get through a bit of stuff today, and then we train on Thursdays,” Kennedy said.
“Once we get more facts with this report back, hopefully can push through and play against Adelaide.”
If Kennedy is sidelined this week, he’ll add another notch to the Eagles’ already full belt in terms of injuries; leading Gareth Parker of 6PR to allude to a ‘Captain’s Curse,’ in the absence of Shannon Hurn, Jeremy McGovern, Kennedy himself and Shannon Hurn.
“It depends if ‘Gov’ gets up this week and if I’m playing. Then there’s Nic Nat, but I don’t really want Nic to get injured because he’s probably our most important player,” Kennedy laughed.
Speaking of cogs in the West Coast engine room, Brendon Ah Chee was one of the players returning from injury and inclusion was timely against the Hawks.
The experienced utility booted a career-best four-goal haul, alongside five marks and four tackles.
“He’s fantastic, he’s done a lot of hard work over this pre-season and had a little bit of an injury early on, but he’s built back up and it’s been quite tough in the WAFL with not many of our guys playing, I ‘spose not really getting the wins on the board or able to perform the way they want to,” Kennedy said.
“So he’s come a long way in training, and he’s trained himself into the side.
“To come out and see what he did, I was pretty proud of him and super pumped.”
