Beloved veteran Darcy Gardiner has suffered a serious knee injury as a devastating run of injuries for the Brisbane Lions sunk to a new low on Sunday night.
The Lions’ troubles started before the bounce when Brandon Starcevich was ruled out with a calf problem sustained in the warm-up.
That news brought Logan Morris onto the bench for his AFL debut — after already having played a full game in the VFL earlier in the day.
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But rather than a cameo at the end, he was called into action almost immediately when Lincoln McCarthy went down with a knee injury.
Brisbane then went down to three on the bench when Noah Answerth copped a concussion from a knee to the head in a marking contest.
Less than 30 minutes later the Lions lost another, with Gardiner collapsing in a heap when his right knee gave way on the wing.
He was in obvious agony, with cameras briefly cutting away.
“The pictures are pretty graphic, they’re so graphic we’re not showing you. He is in a lot of pain,” Dwayne Russell said on Fox Sports.
Gardiner limped off with the help of two club medical officials.
He was making his seventh appearance of the season, three more than he made all of last year when he was famously called up for the preliminary final and grand final.
McCarthy and Gardiner have both had their fair share of injury troubles, though the former’s move to Brisbane worked miracles for his health.
McCarthy played just 29 games for Geelong between 2012 and 2018 — with 19 coming in 2016 alone — but has been a regular for the Lions ever since his move north.
More to come…