COLLINGWOOD will send Reef McInnes for scans on Saturday morning, though the club holds grave fears the young defender could miss the remainder of the season with a suspected ruptured ACL.

McInnes hobbled from the field in the opening stages of Friday night's thrilling six-point win over Footscray, after his right knee buckled following an awkward landing in a marking contest.

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He was immediately substituted out of the game, with the Pies coach Craig McRae revealing the club was facing the grim prospect that McInnes could miss the remainder of the season with a dreaded ACL injury.

"Unfortunately, it looks like Reef might have done an ACL," McRae said post-match.

"We won't know officially until tomorrow morning, but it's devastating for the young man and his family and all of us. We put a lot of trust and hope in Reef that it was going to be a good season for him, but we'll find out tomorrow."

Mason Cox also left the field in the dying stages of the side's narrow victory, having been struck in the face by an errant fist from Footscray defender Rory Lobb as he tried to spoil.

McRae said he doesn't believe Cox suffered a concussion as a result of the blow, but did say he expects Lobb to be put under scrutiny from the Match Review Officer for the striking incident.

"It looks like he got a couple of stitches in his eye," McRae said.

"He didn't come back on the ground. I'm not too sure we're too concerned about that, but we'll have to monitor him in the next period. It looks on the vision like he got punched in the face and he got a couple of stitches.

"I'm not sure, I'd assume (it would get looked at). The guy leaves the ground with a couple of stitches, but I'm not sure. I'll leave it up to others to decide that. Potentially (it was his glasses that did the damage), but he got punched in the face."

Collingwood heads into an early season bye with a 2-1 record and expects key forward Brody Mihocek to return in a fortnight's time, having missed Friday night's victory because of a back spasm he sustained earlier in the week.

"He got a back spasm yesterday," McRae said.

"He was in the squad, but he came in hobbling around. That's most weeks for Brody.

"Potentially, in the past, we'd have put Brody out there because he's a guy that fights through that stuff. But we had Mason ready to go and I thought Mason came in and did play a role for us."

Footscray coach Luke Beveridge was proud of his side's fighting resilience, but bemoaned the lack of opportunities the Dogs produced in attack after being finishing the game -7 for inside-50 entries.

"Give the boys credit, they hung in there," Beveridge said.

"Even though the scoreboard was in our favour at quarter time, I didn't think we had a grip on the game. I thought Collingwood was in control of it. We only had 10 inside-50s (at quarter time), but at one stage we had seven and we'd kicked 3.4. We just didn't get the ball in our forward line enough.

"Sam (Darcy) was a threat, other guys were lurking, but we didn't really press. We were obviously getting done around the stoppage. I thought the boys made a really good adjustment into the second quarter and we got the game on our terms. Although it was pretty close at half time, I thought the game was where we needed it.

"I think Collingwood would be sitting in there and thinking they probably deserved to win, based on what the KPIs say. That's fair enough. (But) I'm rapt with the boys' perseverance, more than anything. They gave us a look. But ultimately, I feel like it's still one that got away."

Footscray youngster Sam Darcy produced a scintillating performance in attack, kicking four goals from 15 disposals, eight marks, nine score involvements and six big, contested grabs.

It was a starring display from the 21-year-old, who was playing in just his 30th senior game. Speaking afterwards, Beveridge said there was no ceiling on where Darcy could get to in his career.

"Forwards, in their position, it's a bit temperamental," Beveridge said.

"They do rely so heavily on their teammates. When you're an inside mid or a ruck, you're in charge and in control of your own destiny. But there's no doubt that you see his highest point stuff and you think, 'How are they going to stop that?'

"He'll get the rub of the green here and there with different things, but the supply and as he matures, can he cover more ground? Can we grow as a team to provide more and more opportunity for him?

"All of those factors are going to be things that influence where he can get to in his career and where he can get to with his status in the competition. At the moment, everyone sees him as an enormous talent and enormous quite literally.

"He's a huge threat for their planning. Any team would think, 'What are we going to do?' We should all benefit from that and we probably didn't tonight. Sam was a definite influence, but we didn't have enough around there. It was probably because of the lack of quantity of their opportunity."