GEELONG is hopeful Patrick Dangerfield's late substitution was merely "precautionary" after the Brownlow medallist experienced calf tightness in Saturday's 35-point win over Port Adelaide.
The 32-year-old was subbed out during the final quarter having managed 18 disposals playing primarily forward after being floored by illness during the week which put his availability for the game in doubt.
Cats coach Chris Scott said the club's medical staff made the call on Dangerfield.
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"By that stage the game was iced," Scott said.
"He was a bit tight in his calf. The only feedback we've got at the moment was that it was tight and he shouldn’t go back on given the score."
On the severity, Scott added: "It's hard to say. My hope is it was just precautionary."
Dangerfield didn’t have any major impact on the game, failing to hit the scoreboard while he writhed in pain after twisting his left knee in a tackle on Zak Butters late in the first quarter but soldiered on.
Scott felt the three-time Carji Greeves Medal winner contributed well after being bedridden during the week.
"I actually thought he was good," Scott said. "There's always a risk when a guy is bedridden during the week, you don’t know exactly how they're going to go."
"He was clearly good enough to play. I thought he had an impact on the game and was important."
The win improves the Cats' record to 6-4, keeping them in touch with the top four, amid a period of change with style which has seen them go win-loss-win-loss-win-loss-win across their past seven games.
"When we're in the mode of where we're evolving with our list and the way we want to play we accept there's going to be some lumpiness there," Scott said.
"Our ambition is to get our game in such good shape that you just win the next game you play."
The defeat ends Port's winning run at four games, having bounced back strongly from its 0-5 start to the season.
The Power, who were preliminary finalists in 2020 and 2021, sit 10th on the ladder with a 4-6 record and face Essendon in round 11 in Adelaide.
"We've recovered reasonably well," Port coach Ken Hinkley said.
"In the last four weeks we've been to Cairns, Hobart and Geelong. We've been able to get some wins that we needed but the reality is we weren’t good enough today."
"We've been good enough over the last month to win four out of five. We're going to have to keep doing that a fair bit if we're going to improve our season.
"We're right in the season. We've got hopefully our best football to come still."
Hinkley said his side were beaten at the contest, losing the contested possession count 150-120.
"We didn’t play that well," he said. "We were lucky enough to be in front at half-time but there wasn’t much of the game that we enjoyed other than a few minutes in the second quarter. The team who had the better physicality around the ball won the game."
"We didn’t give up but we didn't have much polish going on. There were too many parts not working too well.
"Geelong were just way better around the ball and willing enough to be a bit stronger in the contest than we were today."