Hyland injury relief

LEWIS Hyland has escaped a neck injury and broken jaw following a sickening head knock with Colac playing-coach Kane Leersen in Saturday’s loss to the Tigers.

The Newtown & Chilwell hardnut had his head over the ball when Leersen collided with him, instantly knocking him out.

“There were some fears about his neck and jaw, and he was concussed at the same time, hence it took a while to get him off the ground, they were just taking all precautions,” Eagles coach Damien McMahon said.

“He was severely concussed, didn’t know where he was, and he’s still very sore in the jaw.

“But we don’t think it’s broken. He’s very sore in the jaw, concussed and a bit busted up, but he doesn’t appear to have any breaks.

“It was disappointing to lose him for the day, but he’s an integral player to our team. We were probably in control of the game up until that point and it was a bit of a turning point in the game, unfortunately.”

McMahon said he hoped Hyland would miss only Saturday’s game against Lara.

“He’s been a guy that’s come from a fair way back, but he’s become an integral part of our team from the middle part of last year,” he said.

“He unfortunately misses most of the pre-season due to his cricket commitments and he doesn’t train during the week because he works PM hours, so he’s been doing a fantastic job considering all of the above.

“He’s renowned for his hardness and no surprise he’s been injured putting his head over it.

“To his credit, he’ll get on with it pretty quickly.”

McMahon said he was comfortable there was no malice from Leersen.

“We’re certainly not in the business of reviewing these things,” he said.

“We’ve been dealt a pretty hard card (in the past) from an opposition review, which we didn’t think there was much in it and the player paid the price with a two-week suspension.

“It’s not our style and we won’t look at it any further.”

No report was laid but the officiating umpire requested the incident be reviewed.

AFL Barwon’s match review panel “found the contact between the players to be completely incidental”.

The Eagles should be further bolstered with Vic Country star Alex Cincotta returning this week and Mitch Diamond (collarbone) a fortnight away.