Hawks’ fears worsen

INVERLEIGH concedes Jak Kennedy-Hunt’s season could be over, with the star forward unlikely to recover from a serious knee injury.

Hawks coach Mark McDowell said KennedyHunt, the reigning Whitley medallist and league-leading goalkicker, was “fairly pessimistic” after dislocating his knee at training.

The initial prognosis was a four-week lay-off for the former SANFL star as he awaited scans.

But Kennedy-Hunt did not undergo scans on Friday, pushing it back until today.

“He’s fairly pessimistic about it, that’s his view,” McDowell said.

“But I said, ‘You can’t jump at shadows, you’ve just got to see what the scans reveal’.

“It’s possible (that it’s season ending). We’re hoping that it’s not, but we’ve got seven weeks until the end, and I think it could be anywhere between three weeks to end of season and needing surgery.”

McDowell said the Hawks’ medical staff believed Kennedy-Hunt had avoided a rupture to his ACL, but were concerned he had hurt the lateral ligament.

“His knee cap popped out and popped back in, but it just depends if there’s any ligament damage,” McDowell said.

“There might not be any ligament damage, that’s why we’ve got to wait and see what the scans reveal because when your patella pops out it can be excruciatingly painful and you get a lot of swelling and that’s what he’s got at the moment. Until we get rid of the swelling, see the scans we won’t know. He’ll be at least three or four weeks.”