Crows defender Nick Murray will have surgery on his injured knee in the next week before beginning his rehabilitation and road back to footy.

The 22-year-old ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his left knee in the third quarter of Sunday’s loss to Melbourne at the MCG and will miss the rest of the season.

“Unfortunately for Muz he was involved in an aerial contest late in the third quarter and landed awkwardly, and scans confirmed an ACL injury which is devastating for him and us,” Crows High Performance Manager Darren Burgess said.

“He’s already around the Club this morning, in the gym doing some upper body weights, and that’s the sort of person that he is.

“He will see the surgeon and have surgery sometime in the next week.

“It will be a typical reconstruction, it doesn’t look like there was much other damage around the place so it was just that ligament, so he and Tom Doedee will become quite close over the next six or seven months.

“He will have a period off legs then we’ll build him back into some running and movement and go from there.”

Forward Izak Rankine is facing 3-4 weeks on the sidelines with a hamstring injury following an incident in the final minutes of Sunday’s game.

“Disappointingly Izak has a hamstring injury, he’s had a bit of a history of those but hasn’t had one for a while,” Burgess said.

“Pleasingly it was only a small one and only muscular, so with an explosive player like him it’s probably looking like three or four weeks depending on how everything goes.

“But he’s really confident and positive, and will have a period off legs and get him going towards the end of the week and see how we go from there.”

Midfielder Rory Laird is expected to return in Saturday night’s Showdown after missing last weekend with a shoulder injury.

“At a pinch he could have played last week, he had a fair bit of bruising around that shoulder and swelling that wouldn’t disappear, so that restricted his range of movement,” Burgess said.

“He’s got through everything we needed him to over the weekend and is running around really well, he will take part in most of training tomorrow and we anticipate him being available on Saturday.”

Injury list (as of Tuesday, July 25):

Rory Laird (shoulder) test

Zac Taylor (foot) 2-3 weeks

Andrew McPherson (quad) 3 weeks

Izak Rankine (hamstring) 3-4 weeks

Nick Murray (knee) season

Tom Doedee (knee) season