LIAM Shiels' hopes of being part of Hawthorn's finals campaign are under a cloud after the midfielder re-injured his troublesome right ankle against North Melbourne on Saturday.
Shiels missed six weeks after injuring his ankle in round 14 against the Brisbane Lions, but proved his fitness with two games in the VFL before taking on North.
The 22-year-old underlined his importance in the first term on Saturday, keeping North star Brent Harvey to three possessions.
But Shiels re-injured his ankle early in the second quarter and was substituted out of the game soon after.
Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson said at his post-match press conference Shiels was unlikely to face the Sydney Swans next Friday night.
"Whenever a guy's subbed out of the game and he can't return you know that he's probably unlikely to play the next week," Clarkson said.
"We'll get that scanned. It's the same ankle that he hurt probably six or eight weeks ago and worked really hard to get back into it.
"We're hoping it might just be he's rattled a little bit of scar tissue and if that's the case then he may even play next week.
"But if it's not and the scan indicates he's done some damage there, he'll miss a period of time. How much that is I'm not certain at this point."
The Hawks' win over the Roos secured a top-two finish and a home qualifying final, but they have other injury concerns ahead of their clash with the Swans.
Paul Puopolo missed Saturday's game with calf soreness, Jordan Lewis was a late withdrawal with a corked hip and forward Cyril Rioli left the ground in the last quarter for treatment on an ankle.
Clarkson was hopeful all three would be fit for next Friday night's clash.
"(Lewis) just had a little bit of a hip pointer, a bit of a corky there, so we'll just give him a spell this week and he should be right next week," Clarkson said.
"We're hoping that Puopolo will be the same but we'll get both those boys monitored in the early part of the week and see their availability for the Sydney game.
"I know that [Rioli] was limping there for a time and he came off the ground but I'm not sure if he went back on again – it was very, very late anyway.
"He'll get assessed by the docs … and we'll see what the outcome of it is, but I don't think it's too serious."
Clarkson said the Hawks' form was "OK" as they approached the finals, saying North at Etihad was a bigger test than many realised.
"I said during the week – it seems bizarre saying it and many people don't believe it when you say it – (but) we need to play at our very, very best this week to get the points against the Kangaroos," Clarkson said.
"We've got a lot of regard for the way they go about it and a lot of regard for the way they play this stadium, and we knew that if we weren't quite on our game that they would just cut you to pieces with their ball use and they did that in the first half.
"But to the credit of our guys we just corrected a few things at half-time and got a little bit more control of the contest in the second half."
