Brisbane’s hopes of Eric Hipwood playing a part in this year’s finals campaign are up in smoke.
It has come to light that the big forward has a partial tear in his ACL and has no hope of returning this year ... even if the Lions somehow recover from Friday night’s loss to Geelong and make the grand final.
It was an unexpected blow for the Lions.
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Hipwood had been listed as having a calf injury but, when he recently went to have scans, there was a shock twist in the results.
The results came back and showed a partial ACL tear to the same left knee he previously suffered a full ACL rupture in 2021.
He will now undergo another surgery to repair the knee, with the Lions saying the operation will take place this week “to give him the best chance to return to playing as early as possible in 2026”.
“Having Eric miss the finals series through injury is really devastating for him and his family and for us as a club,” football boss Danny Daly said.
“Eric is an extremely valuable player and a premiership forward who was a key to helping the club experience the ultimate success last season.
“While we would love to have Eric out there this September, we will all be supporting him and playing for him during our finals campaign.
“It’s an incredible effort by Eric to have been playing each week with this injury and still giving his all to the team regardless.
“We know he will do everything to get back playing as soon as he can and we look forward to having him return.”
As alluded to by Daly, Hipwood hurt his knee months ago.
“Understand Eric Hipwood was playing with knee soreness as far back as mid-late April,” 7NEWS reporter Andrew McCormack said.
“Potentially played as many as 16 games with a partial ACL tear.”
Brisbane could also be without dual Brownlow medallist Lachie Neale for the remainder of the finals, too.
Neale — who injured his quad a few weeks ago — did his calf in the final term of Friday’s night game against Geelong.
Lions coach Chris Fagan said after the match that he was “not expecting great news” from Neale’s scans, which will take place on Saturday afternoon.
“Looks like he’s done a calf, so that’s not a good thing,” Fagan said.
“He’s a pretty tough sort of guy, can usually play through those, but he couldn’t.
“It takes a lot for him to come off, so I’d suspect it’s something significant.”
Neale was one of Brisbane’s best in the loss to Geelong.
If the Lions are to progress, they will need to beat the winner of Gold Coast and Fremantle and, if they win that, they will then return to the MCG to play Collingwood in a preliminary final (which of course would be a rematch of the pulsating 2023 grand final).
A win there would put them into a third consecutive grand final, but the odds of that happening now seemed stacked against them.
Neale is Brisbane’s best player and all class, and the Lions’ foward-line looked dysfunctional against Geelong without Hipwood.
At one point on Friday night, star Seven commentator Matthew Richardson was alarmed at what he was seeing in the Lions’ forward 50.
“There is no aerial presence in their forward half of the ground,” Richardson said.
- With AAP
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