Key defender gone for the season after suffering knee injury.
Hawthorn has confirmed they will be without defender Ryan Schoenmakers for the rest of the AFL season, after the club opted against LARS surgery.
The relatively new form of repairing anterior cruciate ligaments has been used by several AFL players in recent years, with the best case scenario seeing them back playing in the same season.
However, after meeting with specialists Schoenmakers and the Hawks have elected to undergo a regulation knee reconstruction, which will rule him out for 10 to 12 months.
Schoenmakers’ injury opens the door for Brian Lake to make his debut for the club, with coach Alastair Clarkson loving the depth at the club.
“He’s a pretty handy replacement for Schoenmakers,” Clarkson said.
“We needed a key back to come in to the side, but we just needed to make sure he had that really good base and match fitness and that’s why he played two or three games in the VFL side.
“Certainly (Lake does) solidify our defence a little bit with Schoey going out of the side with that knee. We recruited him for a purpose, to help play on those bigger fellas in the front half.
“The Kangaroos have got two or three bigger type guys in their front half, so it’s a really good game for him to come in and give us some assistance there.”
Hawthorn take on the North Melbourne Kangaroos at the MCG on Sunday, as the Hawks look to continue their hot start to the season.
Check out the footage of Schoenmakers’ knee injury below:
COMMENTS