GEELONG coach Chris Scott has confirmed superstar midfielder Gary Ablett will miss at least one week after injuring his right hamstring against West Coast on Sunday.
Speaking to Fox Footy on Monday night, Scott said the club would be cautious with the 33-year-old, and while they did not have a set return date yet, he would certainly miss next Sunday's match against St Kilda.
"We know he'll miss this week," Scott said.
"I know it's a bit frustrating for people when we don't give a really specific outlook, but in general, that's a guess anyway, even [by] the experts.
"We can afford to take our time and there's no pressure to get him up for this week. It only happened yesterday as well, so we'll work through that process."
Ablett suffered a minor strain to his hamstring during pre-season, missing a JLT Community Series match. His final years playing for Gold Coast were marred by knee and shoulder issues.
Scott said despite Ablett's injury history, there was never any thought to not take the midfielder on the long trip to Perth.
"[No], given it was so early in the season, he'd only played the two games for us and was in good shape. It's very rare that early in the season the coaching staff would overrule the medical staff and be really conservative.
"It certainly would be different if we were 10 or 12 games in and he'd played every game."
Geelong is expected to regain important midfielder Mitch Duncan for its clash against St Kilda. He has missed the past two matches with hamstring soreness.
The Geelong medical staff were kept busy on Sunday, with Cam Guthrie (ankle) and Nakia Cockatoo (knee) sidelined during the match.
Mark Blicavs and Zach Tuohy were also forced to the bench after colliding with the LED fence signage and badly cutting their hands and arms in separate incidents.
Blicavs required nine stitches in his left hand and five in his right elbow.
The AFL is currently investigating the incidents, with the League's football operations manager Steve Hocking saying on Monday afternoon Optus Stadium had met all health and safety regulations.
Scott said he had been told by someone involved in the LED signage at Geelong's GMHBA Stadium – which is the same as that at Optus Stadium – that new signage can be quite sharp.
"The observation has been made those LED signs, when they're new, are really sharp, and over time they weather, and the sharpness goes away," he said.
"It's not ideal, even from a practical sense. They've got to play with uncomfortable hands for a few weeks now. It's disappointing for them. Even to lose players who are important for us due to the blood rule for that period of time is annoying enough.
"One of the other observations has been the fence is really high, so at another ground, they may have been going over the top of the fence.
"There's always teething issues with a new venue, but either that's freakish, to have that happen to two players within 15 minutes and it's never going to happen again, or that's a bit of a problem that needs to be addressed."
