North Wagga are resigned to being without forward Dayne Hancock for the rest of the season amid fears he has ruptured an anterior cruciate ligament in his knee.
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Hancock showed promise early but tore the meniscus in his knee against Charles Sturt University in round four. After a longer-than-anticipated recovery, he returned to full training on Tuesday but came down heavily on his knee.
"I just went to mark the ball and as I come down my leg was straight and I fell awkwardly. All my body weight went right and my leg went left," Hancock said.
He's awaiting confirmation after an MRI scan on Saturday, but is prepared for the worst.
"I haven't been able to straighten my leg since, or get around without crutches," he said. "The doctor said we won't know for sure until the MRI but it looks like you've done your ACL.
"It's not been a good year."
Hancock moved from Darwin to join the club where his father Warren played.
North Wagga were counting on his return for a key target up forward in the back half of the year.
"It's a massive blow for us," Saints coach Kirk Hamblin said.
"Our defence has been awesome all year and our midfielders have done a good job but I think our forward line definitely has room for improvement and we were hoping to get Dayne back to add a bit of firepower,"
"If it's not to be, we'll look for other avenues. We saw glimpses and they were very exciting. He's obviously got a lot of talent and was starting to hit his straps when he hurt himself. But these things happen."
Hancock was always going to miss Saturday's game against reigning premiers Marrar at McPherson Oval which is looming as a grudge match.
"There's a huge rivalry there, absolutely. They knocked us off in the grand final, which definitely hurts, and they've been the benchmark team of the last couple of years, and we've been trying to catch them," Hamblin said.
The competition leaders named their stand-in full-forward Troy Curtis in the backline this week although Hamblin said he will remain an option to swing forward.
The Saints are also still without assistant coach and midfielder Guy Ward whose ankle injury in round two against Marrar hasn't come along as quickly as expected, with bruising on the bone.
But Hamblin and Corey Watt come in and the coach is expecting a pressure-packed encounter against the fourth-placed Bombers.
"It's going to be a good contested game of football. Even when we played them early in the year, when they had a lot of kids playing and a few senior players out, their pressure was still right up there," Hamblin said.
"It's going to be a high pressure game from both teams. We both have strong defences and haven't really kicked big scores this year so it's going to be a very tight contest."
As for Hancock, he'll be there with fingers crossed - for their performance, and for a miracle on his knee.
"It doesn't look good. But the team's going real good. The backline is set to a tee and so is the midfield, especially with Jakey May back in last week. Going forward, they'll be right I reckon. It's not like it's been a one-man team or I've been helping them win," he said.
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