SUPERSTAR Magpie Jordan De Goey is set to miss Collingwood's preliminary final after suffering another right hamstring injury.
He's no certainty to make it back for a potential Grand Final berth either.
Meanwhile, tough nut Levi Greenwood has ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.
De Goey returned from a hamstring issue to the same leg suffered against Richmond in round 19 but was hurt in the first quarter against the Cats.
Pies football manager Geoff Walsh said victory in a fortnight's time was crucial to ensuring De Goey could be seen on-field again this season.
"The scan revealed a strain but how quickly he recovers remains to be seen. We have to keep winning, obviously, but there is still hope that Jordy can reappear in 2019," Walsh told collingwoodfc.com.au.
Greenwood was hurt on the brink of half-time, as gun midfielder Taylor Adams explained to Melbourne radio station 3AW.
"The news has been confirmed this morning that he has ruptured his ACL, so that's a huge blow," Adams said.
Greenwood, 30, revealed to AFL.com.au earlier this week the club had decided to keep him on for next season.
Levi Greenwood celebrates Taylor Adams' early goal.
"It was really innocuous. He just got a knock on the back of his knee and I think pushed his knee forward," Adams said.
"He felt something but didn't realise that it was as severe as what it turned out to be. It was about 30 seconds before the half-time siren I believe."
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Coach Nathan Buckley empathised with the pair's plight on Friday night, when it was suspected Greenwood had suffered a major injury, rather than confirmed.
"They're both remarkably stoic characters, and Levi in particular in the circumstance he's in. And Levi is a much-loved member of the group. There's not many we don't like, but Levi's right up there in regards to heart and soul. His teammates just love him.
"We're really flat for him, we expect the diagnosis to be confirmed. We can't be positive [it's a torn ACL], there's always hope. He was around his teammates on the bench still really positive, engaging and contributing in any manner he could. Physically he was done, but still, his demeanour and his energy was still really positive."
The talented De Goey's soft tissue troubles continue, having been picked for the match against Geelong after missing Collingwood's final four games of the home and away season with a hamstring injury.
Buckley said being two rotations down from the third quarter did not have too much of an effect on the match.
"I thought we were still able to do most things, Geelong were one down as well (Mitch Duncan, knee), so that was probably marginal.
"They definitely wanted to speed the game up when they needed to score after probably halfway through the third quarter and into the last, but we were able to handle for the most part whatever they threw at us.
"It was a really strong, consolidated effort across the four quarters."
Geelong threw a bit of a curveball at All Australian ruckman Brodie Grundy, withdrawing Rhys Stanley then continually rotating players against him.
It was to no avail, as Grundy finished with 47 hitouts, 22 disposals and seven clearances.
"In the end, the tactics in the last quarter against Brodie were really interesting. (Mark) Blicavs, (Esava) Ratugolea and (Tom) Hawkins rucking against him at various times, (Harry) Taylor even had a stoppage there at one point," Buckley said.
"And there was a lot of rotation between their ruck and their key forwards as the game wore on, it was a pretty clear strategy there to try and wear Brodie down. That's probably a little of the situation you find yourself in when you go in with the one recognised ruck and the second ruck (Jordan Roughead) is not a genuine ruckman.
"Our hands were tied a little bit with our injuries by that point, so there wasn't a lot we could to to answer that, other than 'Brodes' to battle his way through it, which he did remarkably well."
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The Pies now go into a week off ahead of a preliminary final with a clear roadmap.
"We will attempt to replicate our last fortnight into the preliminary final," Buckley said.
"This week will be about recovery and it'll be pretty light and a bit of a laugh, then we'll get some work into it towards the end of the week. Then we'll really narrow our focus when we know who our opponent is."
