Relief for Pies with Moore OK

COLLINGWOOD has received the best possible news on star defender Darcy Moore, with the newly re-signed veteran avoiding any ligament damage after his Saturday night hyperextension.

The Pies had been confident he had avoided an ACL tear but were waiting on scan results to be sure.

Moore (pictured) has bone bruising and capsule damage to his knee but his season remains alive.

He is likely to miss three to four weeks but will be back in the back six for several weeks before a finals campaign for a

Pies side that has now won six on the trot, with North Melbourne and Adelaide to come.

The Pies also lost young defender Charlie Dean in the VFL to an ankle injury; he would have been in line to replace Moore against the Roos.

But Jack Magden played VFL on Sunday in the game against Richmond and, while he is no star like Moore, he can fill a role in coming weeks.

Moore had only just signed a six-year $6m deal and 12 months out of the game would have been a hammer blow for the Pies and coach Craig McRae.

Sports medico Peter Larkins on Sunday said capsule damage was the likely outcome but knew the Pies would be nervous given it can be hard to diagnose ACL damage when a player hyperextends his knee.

“You can do the ACL or PCL when you have a hyperextension like that,” he said.

“There is always capsule damage with a hyperextension.”

The Pies have only a handful of players on their injury list with Brodie Grundy a month away with PCL damage and Nathan Kreuger (shoulder), Reef McInnes (shoulder) and Tom Wilson (back) out for the season.