Talia came from the ground cradling his injured arm in the final quarter of Adelaide's Qualifying Final loss to Sydney at AAMI Stadium.
The injury appeared innocuous as Talia landed with his arms outstretched in a contest. However, strategy and innovation coach Dean Bailey revealed the young defender may have sustained the injury prior to that moment.
"It was interesting looking back at the clip. It appears he may have injured his arm in a contest beforehand and while it was fractured he ran across the ground another 30 or 40m to contest the ball near the boundary line," Bailey told FIVEaa.
"If that's the case, it was a pretty tough effort from the big bloke."
The injury has denied Adelaide its preferred match-up for in-form Fremantle skipper Matthew Pavlich, who kicked six goals in his team's impressive Elimination Final win over Geelong on Saturday night.
Talia kept Pavlich to two goals when the Crows and Dockers met at AAMI Stadium in Round 20, but Bailey said Adelaide had other options for the star forward, including Ben Rutten who played well against Sydney
"Dan's going to be hard to replace, but with Andy Otten and Luke Thompson we've still got a couple of talls, who can come in and play that role," he said.
"Matthew Pavlich is going to be a difficult match-up for us, but as we saw yesterday the battle between the arcs can help your forwards be as effective as they can be."
Patrick Dangerfield copped an errant forearm to the head in the last term, but has been cleared of any structural damage.
