The Western Bulldogs will be without star midfielder Ed Richards, ruckman Tim English and young gun Arty Jones for their blockbuster clash with Hawthorn and beyond.
Luke Beveridge's Bulldogs, the only unbeaten team in the AFL after four games, claimed a comfortable if scrappy 34-point win over Essendon on Sunday night, but have been left counting the cost.
Star midfielder Richards withdrew little more than half an hour before the game after feeling soreness in his left knee when having a kick-around ahead of the main warm-up.
Ruck star English (knee) limped off in the third quarter, as did Jones (hamstring).
Scans confirmed English had suffered an MCL injury, while Richards has an issue with a tendon behind his knee.
The Bulldogs don't have a firm timeline on how long the pair will be sidelined, but their absence is a hammer-blow ahead of the blockbuster Gather Round clash with Hawthorn at Adelaide Oval on Saturday.
Richards is coming off his first All-Australian berth last year and had averaged 26 disposals and 5.7 clearances, while English will be sorely missed against Hawthorn's ruck combination of Lloyd Meek and Ned Reeves.
Livewire Jones, who had kicked three goals and taken two hangers when he suffered a low-grade hamstring strain, will miss two to four weeks.
The unlucky forward played just five games across 2024 and 2025.
"He was impressive. It just seems like every time he gets going, he gets injured," Beveridge said.
"So we're going to do some work with him to get his durability up a little bit."
Beveridge also stressed the Bulldogs don't have the runs on the board to start dreaming about a deep run just yet.
They are flying high now, but the Bulldogs dropped away and missed the finals last year, and haven't won in September since the 2021 preliminary final.
"We've just got no runs on the board," Beveridge said.
"So, I mean, yeah, promising start, but we haven't sustained anything like this any other year.
"So we just need to remind ourselves every week that if we want to emerge as that team, there's a long way to go."
Beveridge's men turned in a scintillating first term against the winless Bombers on Sunday night, but were average after quarter-time.
"You saw it tonight under pressure: we didn't handle it too well at times," the coach said.
"We fumbled. We coughed it up. We missed open field targets too many times in a game where the conditions seemed perfect."
