Melbourne hope Max Gawn's knee injury isn't as bad as it looked after the Demons star was an early scratching from their AFL clash with Brisbane.
Gawn and teammate Jack Viney collided early in the first quarter of Friday's contest at the Gabba and the ruckman initially ran away from the contest.
But the influential Demons' skipper was no sooner heading to the sideline and, after being subbed out, struck a forlorn figure as he sat on the floor of the dressing room with his left knee wrapped in ice.
Melbourne eventually lost on an eventful match in Brisbane, the Demons cutting a 40-point margin to 11 by fulltime after a blackout stopped play for 40 minutes.
Coach Simon Goodwin said the club would wait for scans to confirm the extent of his injury, but did not rule out an ACL tear.
"There's an emotional toll to your team when you lose your skipper early in the game," Goodwin said.
"He's got a knee, we need to get it scanned. So we'll just have to wait and see."
Asked about a potential worst-case scenario, Goodwin added: "It'd be unfair to go down that pathway ... we're unsure.
"I don't want his family to be sitting home thinking he's done his knee."
Steven May had already been scratched for the Gabba clash, the key defender unable to get up for what was to be his return from a calf injury.
"He's fine," Goodwin said.
"He just missed a couple of his markers during the week that we were pretty keen for him to hit and with his soft tissue history, we just weren't prepared to take that risk.
"He's an important player to us; we want to make sure he's right for the whole season. So he'll definitely play this week."
Earlier on Friday, the club confirmed Christian Salem has suffered another setback, with the defender's AFL return further delayed by a knee injury.
Salem, who was sidelined for more than two months last year because of a separate knee injury, had been on the verge of making a comeback after battling a thyroid issue.
The 27-year-old speedster had been earmarked to play in Casey's VFL match against Footscray.
But he was sent for scans on Friday after experiencing soreness in his left knee and has been ruled out indefinitely with a small tear in his meniscus.
Salem was grounded in February by illness related to his thyroid gland, and had battled a similar issue in the past.
The illness impacted his heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature and weight.
