JOSH Jenkins' heart was in his mouth when his teammate and good mate, Tom Lynch, ducked into a tackle against North Melbourne on Sunday.
Ordinarily the hit might not have caused such a reaction but given its similarity to the incident in which the Adelaide forward fractured his neck against the Brisbane Lions last year, Jenkins was momentarily rattled.
On that occasion the 24-year-old ducked into a tackle but the contact from his opposition was more front-on than on Sunday, and his neck was compacted.
Scans later revealed a fractured vertebra.
Against the Kangaroos in Port Lincoln Lynch again ducked to avoid his opponent, Jack Ziebell, but his head clipped Ziebell's hip and he fell heavily.
He was helped to his feet by training staff but with wobbly legs he collapsed again and was carried from the field on a stretcher.
Lynch escaped serious injury and watched the second half nursing a headache on the Crows' bench.
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Speaking to AFL.com.au while on Adelaide's community camp on South Australia's Eyre Peninsula, Jenkins said his mind raced when Lynch was felled.
"I was right there at the contest and didn't actually see the contact or the collision; I just sort of saw him go down in a really ordinary state," Jenkins said.
"Watching the vision I can see myself watching Lynchy and not watching the ball because it's a pretty serious thing that he's coming off from last year.
"My heart skipped a beat for a second but fortunately at half time I was able to go in and see that he was fine.
"He's lucky that he escaped with just a bit of a headache and a concussion."
Jenkins plays his best football in attack and has needed to develop his ruck work since being traded to the Crows from Essendon in late 2011.
His athleticism makes him an incredibly difficult forward to shut down, as he showed last year when he booted 40 goals in his best season to date.
But with Adelaide's No.1 ruckman Sam Jacobs rested against the Kangaroos, Jenkins played almost exclusively in the middle of the ground.
It meant for a relatively quiet day (six possessions, 12 hit-outs) but Jenkins said he benefited from the chance to focus on the secondary part of his game.
"I spent pretty much all my time on the ground in the ruck and when I play normal games with 'Sauce' (Jacobs) there's not much of a chance to go in there," he said.
"So that was a good opportunity for me to spend some time in there.
"I was really scratchy with my timing ... centre bounce stuff is hard to replicate because of the bash and crash style – you can't really do it at training.
"So in the first few game's your timing's going to be off but that's expected, I expect it, 'Doc' Clarke (ruck coach Matthew Clarke) expects it as well so we'll go have a look at it and evaluate it."
Josh Jenkins is a $372,000 forward in NAB AFL Fantasy this year.
