HAWTHORN'S prized recruit Jaeger O'Meara is suffering bone bruising in his troublesome right knee, but could still return as soon as next week, Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson says.
Mystery surrounded the extent of O'Meara's injury after he copped a knock to the knee in the loss to Gold Coast and was left out of both the Hawks' Easter Monday clash with Geelong and the winless club's must-win encounter with West Coast at the MCG this Sunday.
Clarkson believes the 23-year-old could be available for the round six clash with St Kilda, but he admits there are no guarantees.
"We thought (it) was going to settle pretty quickly but with bone bruising it could be one week or it could be four," Clarkson told reporters before training on Saturday morning.
"Certainly the way that he responded in the first couple of days (after the knock) was positive, so we thought he'd be a chance to play the next week (against Geelong).
"We're hopeful he's going to be right for next week, but we were hopeful he was going to be right for last week.
"Aside from the fact it's the same knee he's had patella trouble with, that's the only (similarity) with what's happened with him in the past."
With debate swirling about the merits of Hawthorn's decision to trade aggressively for the former Gold Coast star while offloading champions Sam Mitchell and Jordan Lewis, Clarkson said people shouldn't rush to judgment.
"Give it the fullness of time, for goodness sake," he said, before citing win-win trades such as Shannon Grant for Wayne Schwass and Chris Judd for Josh Kennedy.
"One's over a longer term and one's over a short term. Jaeger's been at our footy club for four weeks (and) the hysteria around that is just mind-boggling."
Clarkson conceded the 0-4 Hawks were shadows of their former premiership-winning selves, but backed his players to lift.
"I know there's a lot of hysteria outside of the footy club, but that's certainly not the case within the footy club," he said.
"We are disappointed and we're frustrated that we're not playing as well as we'd like, but it's all just part of the journey.
"We've enjoyed some really, really good times and right at the present time we're not playing anywhere near as well as we can.
"We just need to work through that. It's not easy, we've got to roll the sleeves up and do some hard yards and a bit of soul-searching …
"We're backing ourselves (to) work our way out of this little bit of a hole we're in."
Clarkson recalled the Hawks' 2010 season when they were 1-6 but recovered to make the finals.
"We've got history at this footy club of being able to cope with a tremendous amount of adversity," he said.
"Even when we were winning on a consistent basis, whether it was illness, significant injury, players (leaving) through free agency, losing staff to other clubs … and our club in the last 50 years has been exactly the same."
Clarkson said ex-Tiger big man Ty Vickery hadn't returned to the side after missing the clash with Geelong with a back complaint simply because his form hadn't been strong enough, and the Hawks had wanted to give Tim O'Brien another opportunity.
