ADELAIDE has confirmed forward Josh Jenkins has a pair of cracked ribs, placing him in doubt for next weekend's round five clash with Gold Coast.
Scans last Sunday revealed the injury, suffered from a heavy knock early in the Crows' round two win over Hawthorn at the MCG. Initial tests in Melbourne that day had failed to uncover the problem.
Forward Mitch McGovern, who suffered a serious hamstring injury in last week's Showdown clash with Port, visited a surgeon on Thursday but the club is yet to decide if he will need an operation.
Meanwhile, star goalsneak Eddie Betts is ready to put a racism row behind him and focus on football in the Crows' Saturday night game against Essendon at Adelaide Oval.
Betts was the subject of racial taunts in last week's Adelaide derby.
"From Eddie's viewpoint he is now looking forward to playing. He's in a good headspace," Crows coach Don Pyke told reporters on Friday.
Betts will form part of a revamped forward line against the Bombers.
Troy Menzel has been summoned as McGovern's replacement in an unbeaten and ladder-leading Adelaide outfit ignoring hype about being the competition's early pacesetter.
"For us, nothing has really changed," Pyke said.
"We have won three games which is ideally what you want at the start of the season, but we have identified areas where we want to keep getting better.
"For us it's the first step in a long season.
"We're certainly not sitting here going 'great start, we're happy with ourselves and happy with our life'.
"We can't stop people writing opinion about where they might project or where their opinion might sit as to where we may finish.
"That is the furthest thing from our mind."
Pyke believed the seventh-placed Bombers, who last week lost for the first time this season, were now easier to read - but no less dangerous.
"People at the start of the year were saying a bit of an unknown," he said, referring to an Essendon side bolstered by the return of a batch of players after serving a drugs-related suspension last season.
"But I think there's a bit more known about them now.
"You look through their lines they have got a lot of quality players out there and are playing some good footy.
"We are prepared to face what we know is a good side."
