COLLINGWOOD ruckman Brodie Grundy has been cleared of major damage after suffering a neck injury in his side's defeat to Geelong.
Grundy had his body pulled back in a marking contest with Rhys Stanley, immediately grabbing at his shoulder and coming from the field where he was almost instantly replaced by medical substitute Finlay Macrae.
The club later clarified that Grundy had suffered a neck injury, with coach Nathan Buckley revealing post-match the Magpies had taken the dual All-Australian and dual best and fairest winner to hospital for further scans.
He was taken to nearby Epworth Hospital on Saturday afternoon and left that night.
"The scans cleared Grundy of any major injury and he left hospital on Saturday evening," Collingwood said in a statement on Sunday morning.
"He will be assessed in coming days."
Collingwood captain Scott Pendlebury spent much of the 10-point defeat playing forward, with his side again battling scoring issues as the Pies laboured to just one goal in the first three quarters.
They eventually broke the shackles in the final term, piling on five goals for the quarter alone to reduce a 31-point deficit to just a couple of kicks by the final siren, with Buckley revealing that Pendlebury is playing through the pain barrier.
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"Yes, he is (carrying an injury) … and no (I can't go into more detail)," Buckley said.
"Very rarely do players take to the field 100 per cent fit, by the way. He's a tough unit.
"I can tell you that he put his finger into Josh Thomas' mouth about three weeks ago before the Sydney game and had to have stitches onto the end of a finger that is already as manky as all hell.
"When you've been a warrior for as long as he has – and he's known for his silky smooth skills and making things look easy – but to play as many games as he has at the quality that he has, it shows you how much grit, resilience and determination he's got."
Collingwood is due to travel to South Australia next Saturday for its clash with Adelaide, though Victoria's recent COVID-19 outbreak and the subsequent interstate travel restrictions could mean a re-shuffle of the fixture.
However, at this stage, the Magpies have not yet had any indication from the AFL that the game – or the venue of the game – has changed.
"We don't have any clear information on that," Buckley said.
"Like most of the competition, there might be some probables and some possibles. But one thing we learnt last year is to look after what we know.
"We anticipate in the next 24 to 48 hours, we'll have an idea on what next week looks like at the least. If we don't, we'll prepare and focus on us and continue to try and build our brand over the next couple of weeks."
Meanwhile, Geelong is hopeful that superstar midfielder Patrick Dangerfield will overcome an ankle injury and play after the club's bye next week, with Mitch Duncan (concussion), Gryan Miers (leg) and Mark O'Connor (hamstring) also in the frame to return.
Cam Guthrie should also be fit after he was a late withdrawal from Saturday's clash due to a shoulder knock, while Mark Blicavs failed to recover from a calf injury in time to play Collingwood.
Blicavs underwent a fitness test under the watchful eyes of coach Chris Scott and football boss Simon Lloyd before the game, only to be pulled from the contest, though Geelong is confident most of the aforementioned players should be fit for the club's round 13 blockbuster against Port Adelaide.
"(Blicavs) was really close," Scott said.
"He just felt his calf, so it was touch-and-go there. In the end, he wasn't 100 percent sure that he could play with that. It's really hard to convince a player if he's not sure.
"We'll need to think through it a little bit further and see how training goes, but I think that extra little bit of training that we get will be really important for those guys. They understand their roles, but they also know we value cohesion as a team.
"They would have to show throughout training that they can fit in pretty seamlessly … but if you're talking about quality, that tends to override everything and they're all quality players.
"If they're cherry ripe to go, I don't see any reason (they won't play) … other than that issue of cohesion."