Reid, who detailed the latest injury news to the media on Monday afternoon, said the club had no option but to focus on the next game.
Hentschel will need a full reconstruction of his right knee, dislocated against Port Adelaide on Sunday; Andrew McLeod will have foot surgery after it became infected and will not be able to play for a month; Mark Ricciuto is suffering from a mystery virus and will not play this week; and Ben Hart’s sore achilles tendon will probably keep him out for a month.
“It certainly doesn’t help the situation, but what it does mean is that as a footy club we have to gather together with a strong resolve,” Reid said. “We’re still going to have a lot of lads that are really keen to play. We’ve had a lot of lads who have been able to cover this year and it does make a difference, but that’s the challenge for us. We are dead keen and determined to do well. It’s not going brilliantly at the moment, but we saw some signs on Sunday. Forget the finals, we want to do the job this week (against Melbourne)”.
Here is what Reid said about some of the injured players.
On Trent Hentschel …
“The preliminary examination (has revealed that) he has done the ACL so that means a total reconstruction (of the knee is required) which means he won’t play for some 12 months or so. That in itself is a bitter disappointment for Trent and obviously we’re disappointed from our perspective.
“There are other parts of the knee that are being examined, and we’ll probably get Dr Brian Sando to give you a run down (later in the week) but at this stage further tests are being done and we do know that he won’t be playing in the next 12 months.
“He’s in hospital, and obviously pretty heavily sedated at the moment and will be for a few days now. If I can put it into some perspective I think the specialist said it’s more like a car accident injury than a football injury, so we hope for his sake that we can get over that”
On Andrew McLeod …
“Andrew McLeod’s foot has had an infection in it. At half time he felt that something was wrong, and by the end of the game he was struggling. When he took his boot off it blew up. The doctor put him on anti-biotics straight away but it has got dramatically worse. He’s seen the specialist this morning, and he believes that the only thing to do is to cut him open to drain it. From a repair position, our guys are saying four weeks at best; we’re not repairing good flesh, we’re repairing bad flesh so that certainly puts us in a bit of a predicament there. Andrew is possibly not going to be available for three to four weeks.”
Ben Hart …
“Benny Hart has had scans on his achilles, which is pretty sore; we haven’t had any result back on the scans at this stage but our own medical assessment is that it is unlikely that he will play for several weeks … it puts him out of some calculations for at least the next month.”
Mark Ricciuto …
“Mark has got a viral infection; it’s quite severe, to the point that the doctor won’t let him near the football club. He’s been under the guidance of the physician since he got crook … he got really bad during (Saturday) afternoon and is quite frankly no better today and maybe worse. Trying to pick out what that is, is a decision of the physician and we will be in a better position later in the week to give you an idea.”
Nathan Bassett …
“Nathan Bassett is ok. They did all the tests this morning and he got through with flying colours. We are reasonably confident that Nathan will be able to play (this week).”
Brett Burton …
“Brett is coming along pretty well. He’s running well and we would like to think that next week he’ll be back to ball skills and then probably another week on top of that.”
