BOOM Gold Coast draftee Izak Rankine will miss up to eight weeks with a hamstring injury.
Rankine, taken No.3 in last year's NAB AFL Draft, suffered the injury in Sunday's JLT Community Series loss to Sydney in Lismore.
In a statement released on its website on Tuesday morning, Gold Coast's head of physiotherapy Lindsay Bull said Rankine suffered the setback trying to execute a chase-down tackle.
"Given the specifics of Izak's injury, the explosive nature with which he plays the game and where he is at in his career, we’ll take a responsible approach with Izak and make sure his rehabilitation is thorough and sets him up well moving forwards," Bull said.
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Rankine played both JLT games, kicked memorable goals in both and was in line for a round one debut.
It took Izak Rankine less than two minutes to kick an incredible goal!#JLTSeries pic.twitter.com/xbVxtdfPDo
— AFL (@AFL) March 3, 2019
He wasn't the only injury concern for the Suns from the weekend, with versatile Aaron Young suffering an ankle problem.
"He’s sustained some damage to both his ankle and his midfoot in the incident, which is relatively uncommon," Bull said.
"We'll commence his rehabilitation straight away and progression will be guided by his symptoms throughout the rehabilitation process."
George Horlin-Smith (ankle) and Nick Holman (back) will return to full training this week and be available for round one.