PORT Adelaide will be looking to put a difficult week behind it when it takes on North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium on Saturday.
Power forward Todd Marshall has been granted indefinite leave from the club after the death of his father on Monday night, while star defender Hamish Hartlett will miss the rest of the season after tearing the ACL in his right knee at training on Thursday.
"I'm not sure whether you can galvanise (the team), there's some difficulties in each situation," Power coach Ken Hinkley told reporters at Adelaide Airport on Friday morning.
"Todd's dad is significant for his family, and we're just so sad that that had to happen.
"Hamish's is a bit of a different one.
"It's an accident that happens in football that we have to deal with.
"I'm sure the group will do everything they can to give both the boys something to smile about."
The Power have recalled Dom Barry and Aidyn Johnson to replace Hartlett and the suspended Lindsay Thomas from the side that lost to Geelong last Saturday night.
Half-back flanker Jimmy Toumpas is the travelling emergency.
Scans on Friday confirmed the worst for Hartlett, who will be a huge loss for Hinkley's side.
The 27-year-old – who is in the Power's leadership group – has been outstanding this year, and courageously returned last week after a sickening head clash with Patrick Dangerfield.
"Hamish will have surgery sometime in the next 24 hours and repair an ACL-damaged ligament, and he'll start the long haul to playing some great football, that he was playing at the start of this year," Hinkley said.
"Hamish's form would've been in our best three players this year.
"It's always a bit of a blow, but when it's someone who's worked so hard to get himself established to be the player he wants to be, it's a little more difficult."
Hinkley said experienced defender Jasper Pittard was a strong chance to return for next week's clash with West Coast.
"We're lucky in some sense we've got a number of half-backs who are ready to play, even Jasper's ready to go now," Hinkley said.
"He's pretty much a like-for-like replacement, not for this week, but the week after.
"(Against the Kangaroos) we'll mix and match a bit to get what we want.
"We know the challenge that's in front of us with the front end of North Melbourne."
Matthew Broadbent will come into the mix midway through the season in his recovery from ankle surgery.
"He's about to get on the grass in the next week and run," Hinkley said.
"He's been running on the anti-gravity treadmill and coping really well, so there's a great player sitting in the wings for us hopefully in another five or six weeks."
