MELBOURNE defender Colin Garland showed extraordinary courage to play out the Queen Birthday's game against Collingwood despite breaking his hand in the first quarter.
The 27-year-old had surgery on Tuesday and will consult his surgeon next Monday to determine how long he will miss.
The free agent has been in excellent form in recent weeks and his absence is a real blow for the Demons as they head into a crucial clash against St Kilda on Sunday.
Fitness coach Dave Misson told the club's website it was an amazing effort from Garland to show the mental toughness needed to play out the game.
"[He] knew that we were struggling a little bit and one man down, so he played the whole game with a broken hand," Misson said.
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Garland's injury wasn't the only bad news from the weekend for Melbourne with promising defender Christian Salem injuring his 'good' hamstring as he prepared to return from a hamstring injury suffered earlier in the season.
Misson said Salem suffered the injury at training on Saturday and was likely to miss between three to four weeks.
He will join midfielder Aaron vandenBerg on the sidelines, who is set to miss a similar period of time after straining his hamstring against the Magpies.
Chris Dawes and Jay Kennedy-Harris are expected to resume in the VFL on the weekend presuming they get through VFL training at Casey on Thursday night.
