Essendon midfielder Sam Durham faces a nervous wait after lining up his Carlton counterpart Adam Cerra with an “old school” hit.

That Cerra wasn’t concussed and played on will work in Durham’s favour, but the bump will be scrutinised by the AFL’s match review officer regardless.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Sam Durham lines Adam Cerra up with ‘old school’ hit.

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If the hit is graded as careless conduct, high contact and medium impact, Durham faces a one-match ban.

Cerra arrived first to a ball on the wing during Sunday night’s MCG blockbuster between the two traditional rivals, with Durham bracing to bump from well before he reached Cerra or the ball.

The Blues star was flattened and awarded a free kick from the hit, which sparked a fracas between nearby players from both sides.

Durham appeared to shave Cerra’s head, but contact was more significantly felt on the shoulder.

“There’s shoulder (contact) there. It looks like maybe some jaw contact with the back of the back as well,” Brian Taylor said watching the replay on Channel 7.

“That is a capital T for trouble. He’s lucky he didn’t catch him flush on the head.”

Kane Cornes added: “That’s old school; that was removed from the game a long time ago.

“He is so lucky that there is no serious neck injury and appears to be no serious concussion.

“You just can’t do that.”

Carlton doctors were pictured on the sidelines reviewing the vision of the incident as Cerra played on.

He was eventually taken from the ground and assessed in the rooms before later emerging back onto the interchange bench with a red mark under his eye.

“This is just an interesting watch now; they’re continuing to look at the monitor, 20 minutes after the incident,” Hamish McLachlan said.

“Is that surprising?”

Nick Riewoldt answered: “Well, not really. I mean, delayed-onset concussion is a thing, so you’d imagine he’s be on watch for the rest of the night.”