St Kilda superstar Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera’s season is all but over after scans revealed a moderate hamstring strain.
The Saints superstar was on crutches and unable to drive himself to the scan this morning after suffering the injury in the opening quarter of Sunday night’s loss to Carlton.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Wanganeen-Millera goes down with hamstring injury.
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He has been ruled out for the remainder of the home and away season, but any return this year would be a miracle.
The timeline is usually around 4-6 weeks and the Saints need to win their final two games, as well as Carlton losing their final two games to make the wildcard round.
In a further blow for the Saints, Mason Wood has been ruled out for the final two matches of the season after suffering a calf stain.
“It was very disappointing to lose both Nasiah and Mason during the first half of last night’s game,” General Manager of Football Lenny Hayes said.
“Clearer recovery timelines will be determined for both players in the coming days, however both have clearly been ruled out for the remainder of the home and away season.”
Tom De Koning and Liam Ryan will both face fitness tests later in the week due to shoulder injuries.
Wanganeen-Milera pulled up lame while chasing the ball out of a centre stoppage at Marvel Stadium on Friday night and headed straight for the bench, clearly knowing he had done some damage.
Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera pictured leaving scans on Monday. Credit: 7NEWS
The dejected star, 23, limped straight down to St Kilda’s rooms and later returned with ice on his hamstring before the deflated Saints lost 15.10 (106) to 8.14 (62).
Saints coach Ross Lyon described the Wanganeen-Milera injury as “like an arrow through the heart”.
He also said the Saints were “scratching our heads a little bit on the soft tissue” injury given St Kilda had an eight-day break.
The hamstring was the opposite side to the hip pointer concern Wanganeen-Milera had been dealing with.
But Lyon noted Wanganeen-Milera had missed some training sessions in recent weeks, which was “not ideal” given he is normally a player who always trains.
The Saints are already without Max King (hamstring), Jack Sinclair (calf) and Sam Flanders (Achilles).
“We haven’t used it as an excuse to now, and I don’t really want to, to be honest,” Lyon said.
“You’ve just got to build out a list capable of handling those sort of injuries.”
Jack Silvagni and Ryan are managing shoulder issues and Lyon was unsure whether the Saints would rest them, while flagging he could turn to some hungry VFL players.
“There was a really good VFL performance, so we’ll really look heavily at that,” he said.
“We’ve got to set some standards and not accept — as coaches and players — not accept some stuff, so we’ll look to bring some in.”
Lyon believed 11th-placed St Kilda — who recruited hard over the off-season — had been very competitive and their percentage of 101.6 showed it, while acknowledging some might feel they hadn’t improved this season.
“But that’s OK, I’ve gotta wear it, I’m fine, I’m a big boy, I’m happy to take what comes,” he added.
“But my job — leaders shepherd, protect and nurture and challenge their people under pressure, and that’s my job and I’ll continue to do it until I’m either tapped or I tap myself.”
— with AAP
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