Adelaide will be without classy defender Wayne Milera for the rest of the AFL season after scans confirmed a ruptured patella tendon in his right knee on Sunday.
Milera landed awkwardly on the leg after going up to spoil the ball in defence against Fremantle on Friday night.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Wayne Milera out for the season with serious knee injury.
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He was taken straight off the ground, and could bear weight on the leg, but cut a shattered figure as he disappeared into the rooms with club trainers.
The 26-year-old will have surgery in the coming days.
It’s the exact same injury that saw him sidelined for the entire 2021 season, but on the opposite leg.
“It’s obviously devastating for Wayne who has dealt with his fair share of unfortunate injuries in his career so far,” Crows fitness boss Darren Burgess said.
“The surgery will mean he will miss the rest of the season while focusing on his rehabilitation.
“Unfortunately, he has been through this before so he knows the road ahead, but as we know with Wayne he is a very strong, positive person who will do everything to ensure he returns bigger and better next year.”
The club is also sweating on scans for small forward Lachie Murphy, who injured his leg half way through the last quarter after coming on as the sub.
It completed a disastrous night for the Crows, who slumped to 0-3 with their 35-point loss to the Dockers.
But while coach Matthew Nicks says he’s been left frustrated by his team’s error-riddled start to the season, he’s not giving up on their finals dreams just yet.
Adelaide’s horror skill errors were their main undoing in the 9.15 (69) to 4.10 (34) loss, the final result marking their lowest score since posting 2.9 (21) in a 63-point loss to Essendon in round 17, 2021.
Nicks conceded a bulk of his team are simply out of form and low on confidence.
“Unfortunately, at the moment, we’re just we’re not playing to a standard that we expect,” Nicks said.
“You’ve got a lot of players at the moment that are down on form — too many for us to stand up when it counts.
“We turned the ball over in some really, really dangerous areas, and it’s uncharacteristic for us,
“We’re frustrated at the moment. We’re doing small things right and then we’re letting ourselves down.”
Adelaide lost to Gold Coast (six points) and Geelong (19 points) in their first two games, but their display against Fremantle was by far the worst of the lot.
Nicks has seen some worrying signs across the opening three rounds.
“I’d probably look more at the lack of cohesion we have at the moment, which is something that we’ve had at a high level over the last couple of years,” Nicks said.
“We’ve had each other’s back. We’ve known exactly where we’re at. And at the moment, it’s just not clicking for us.
“This is not new. We’re not sitting here tonight saying, ‘well that came from nowhere’.
“Unfortunately, it’s now been a couple of weeks in a row that we’ve been off in that area of executing with the ball in hand and making the right decision when we have to.”
Adelaide haven’t played finals since reaching the decider in 2017.
There were high hopes the Crows could gatecrash the finals this year, and the club’s hierarchy were so confident in Nicks that they re-signed him until the end of 2026 earlier this month.
Despite Adelaide being winless and near the foot of the table, Nicks hasn’t given up hope on 2024 being a successful campaign.
“It’s still early in the season. There are some very very good sides that are sitting in a similar record,” Nicks said.
“So, by no means are we dropping out bundle, but at the moment we’re incredibly frustrated with where we’re at.
“We’ll sit down as a group and nut through it.
“We’ll find out how do we find that form? How do we bring that connection back? How do we believe in ourselves again?”
Adelaide face Melbourne next Thursday night to kick off Gather Round.
– With AAP