MELBOURNE midfielder Angus Brayshaw was left upset and shaken after been taken from the field on a stretcher following a heavy bump from Collingwood's Brayden Maynard in Thursday night's qualifying final.
The Pies defender had jumped up and attempted to spoil Brayshaw's kick, when his shoulder collected the Demon's chin on the way down.
MAGPIES v DEMONS Full match coverage and stats
The 27-year-old Brayshaw – who started wearing a helmet after a series of concussions in 2016 – will miss next week's semi-final and potentially the preliminary final should Melbourne make it. He also had concussion issues in 2017.
"[The Match Review will] be sorted out during the week. We've got a pretty shattered player in there. You can only go by the facts – he jumped off the ground and knocked a guy out. I guess time will tell," Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin said.
"He's upset. He's obviously had a history with concussion, a long time ago. So he's obviously dealing with some emotion there. But he wants to play finals footy and he's going to be missing for a few weeks, and that's disappointing.
"I think he's OK (bone structurally), he's got a bit of a shiner, but he's alright."
Melbourne scored 7.11 from 69 inside 50s (compared to Collingwood's 37), and while the Demons came back with a vengeance in the fourth quarter, they'd left themselves with far too much to do, falling seven points short.
"We dominated the game, post-quarter-time, for a big part of it, and we were wearing them down. But the start was poor, and I thought we were pretty average in the contest early, and Collingwood made us pay," Goodwin said.
"They hit the scoreboard, and from that moment on, we were chasing the scoreboard the whole game. We played the game the right way for three quarters. Yeah, we didn't execute in front of goal and we didn't get enough reward for our entries, but it's the right way to play.
"I was just very proud of our group, they played like winners for the last three quarters and we didn't get the result, so we've got to come back and do it again.
"It's a little bit how we play. We've had some games where we get a lot of repeat inside 50s, it's a little bit from a method perspective – we just didn't execute as well as we would have liked from our inside 50s, and that shows up on the scoreboard.
"We didn't kick a big enough score to win. We've still got a bit to work on in that space."
Melbourne will now face the winner of the elimination final between Carlton and Sydney next week, and Goodwin and his coaching team will continue to work on the forward line structure.
Jake Melksham's final-round ACL injury saw the inclusion of Tom McDonald, with Ben Brown (knee) and occasional forward Harrison Petty (foot) also sidelined. Brodie Grundy, however, is available if the Dees want to play two rucks.
"We'll have a good look at that and review it during the week. We're running a little bit low in the stocks, in terms of the forwards, but we've got some guys playing tomorrow in a VFL trial game, if you want to call it, or practice game, or training session, against Carlton," Goodwin said.
"We'll have a look at some options there."
Goodwin dismissed any potential MRO concerns for key forward Jacob van Rooyen, who collected Dan McStay with a glancing blow, saying he was "pretty sure McStay stayed out on the ground".
McStay did leave the field for a concussion test, but passed and returned to kick two crucial goals in the third quarter.
