GREATER Western Sydney will take a conservative approach with superstar Toby Greene's hamstring injury, with coach Leon Cameron saying it could cost him anywhere up to three weeks.
Greene pulled up short after a contest at half-forward late in the first quarter of Sunday's win over Gold Coast and left the field immediately.
He went to the Giants' bench for a fleeting second before heading straight to their rooms where he was ruled out for the remainder of the match.
In better news, tagger Matt de Boer left the field in the final minute, also with a tight hamstring, which Cameron described as "precautionary".
GIANTS CLIMB INTO EIGHT Full match coverage and stats
Cameron said the Giants had learned to "err on the side of caution" with injuries like Greene's.
"I think he'll miss a couple but, I mean, time will tell," Cameron said.
"We're not going to know for probably 24-48 hours what the extent of the damage is.
"He's not going to be playing next Friday against the Bombers.
"If it's one, two, three weeks, we'll find out in the coming days."
Following Friday night's game against Essendon, the Giants head west to hub in Perth, with a round 12 match against Sydney on August 13.
Cameron said it was "obviously" disappointing to lose Greene, who was fresh from a match-winning five-goal haul against Richmond.
"We're a better team when he's in the side, but it's a great opportunity for some of the (younger) boys."
De Boer will also be assessed in the next day or two.
"If he's not right next Friday he's not right," Cameron said.
"I'm just super excited to bring in some of those young kids that have been knocking on the door.
Meanwhile, Gold Coast coach Stuart Dew was disappointed with his team's performance, saying there would be personnel changes for Thursday night's match against St Kilda as a result.
The Suns have lost four of their past five matches, but against the Giants were uncharacteristically poor around the ball, beaten by 20 in contested possessions and 10 in clearances.
"We just didn't deal with the heat around the ball, we coughed it up way too often," Dew said.
"Our skill level was really, really disappointing."
Somehow the Suns stayed competitive and were still an outside chance of pinching victory at three-quarter time, finishing with just one less scoring shot than their opponents.
But that was papering over some cracks.
"There'll be changes," Dew said.
"We were hoping to bring Sean Lemmens in (this week), he had the birth of his daughter too close to the game.
"He was going to come in this week.
"Given there'll be a four-day break, and the performance, we'll make a couple of changes.
"I think our numbers suggest we're a far, far greater side than last year and we're really confident of that."
