Essendon’s injury-ravaged AFL season from hell continues to get worse, with star defender Jordan Ridley succumbing to yet another soft tissue complaint on Friday night.

The key defender has struggled with fitness right throughout his nine-year career, over which he has played just 104 games.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Jordan Ridley goes down with another soft tissue injury.

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Ridley went down with another hamstring injury against the Western Bulldogs — his third for the year — just three weeks after returning from his last setback.

“Mason Redman said he’s the best player on their list and, for a guy that talented, he’s only managed the 104 games in eight seasons — it’s because of how many soft tissue injuries he’s had,” Xander McGuire said at half-time.

“This is his third hamstring injury in this calendar year alone.

“He missed eight weeks when he did one in Round 9 and he’s only just come back into the side after that, so devastation for him.

“But it’s just one of so many that Essendon have had this season.

“He’s now the 15th name on the injury list so far this season, 10 of those on that injury list are out for the year at least, and Ridley could well join them, given his history of soft tissue injuries.

“But it’s unprecedented how many of them are big men: you’ve got Nick Byran, Sam Draper, Kyle Langford, Harry Jones, Ben McKay, Ridley — just to name a few of them.

“They’ve missed 178 games of experience to injury alone, the most in the league so far this year.”

Matthew Richardson couldn’t believe how many of their best players were in the injury ward.

“I look at that list there and straight away I’ve counted 10 of those guys that are probably in their best 23 — 10 players!” he said.

Adding insult to injury — quite literally — Aaron Naughton and Sam Darcy combined for 13 goals in the Western Bulldogs’ 93-point rout of the hapless Bombers.

In a fizzer of a Friday night fixture, the Bulldogs’ twin towers were unstoppable in the 22.11 (143) to 7.8 (50) destruction of Essendon.

Back-in-form Naughton booted a career-high seven goals, while Darcy finished with a season-best six majors in an imposing performance.

Superstar captain Marcus Bontempelli, who was earlier in the week named the second-best Bulldog of all-time, was typically dominant with 35 possessions and two goals.

Celebrating the 25th anniversary of their last premiership, Essendon were treated with disdain, similar to how the all-conquering Bombers bullied opponents during the 2000 season.

The only concern for the Bulldogs was star midfielder Tom Liberatore appearing to have his foot stomped on during the third quarter.

Liberatore was subbed out soon after, but the Dogs insisted it was a tactical move to bring Laitham Vandermeer into the game.

As Essendon slumped to an eighth-straight defeat, injury-prone defender Ridley was subbed out of the game midway through the second quarter due to what the club described as “hamstring tightness”.

The Bombers have used 13 debutants this season — the equal most of any team in the AFL era — as injuries have ruined any hope they had this year.

Ridley, who previously won their best-and-fairest, has been restricted to just 10 games this season.

After belting Essendon by 91 points earlier in the season, the Bulldogs were always shaping up for another percentage-boosting result.

They steamrolled the inexperienced Bombers, continuing their trend of dominating bottom-10 opponents.

But this victory — momentarily putting them back into the top-eight — does little to change the perception of the Bulldogs (11-8) as flat-track bullies.

The Dogs fell short against Adelaide and the Brisbane Lions before this match, taking their record against top-eight teams to 1-8.

As he was last week against GWS, Liam McMahon was again Essendon’s shining light up forward, kicking their only two goals of the first half.

- With AAP