Fremantle are likely to find out the extent of Nat Fyfe’s shoulder injury on Tuesday after the captain dislocated his shoulder against the Western Bulldogs on Sunday at Optus Stadium.
Fyfe came off in the final term and took no further part in the game.
Executive general manager of football Peter Bell said Fyfe was lacking strength in the shoulder after it was put back in.
“(The Club doctors) said he was lacking quite a bit of power, which is not unusual,” Bell told 6PR.
“I think he pulled up reasonably well in the circumstances, we’ve just got to assess the damage now and see how he progresses in the next few days.”
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Bell said the injury came after Fyfe showed incredible courage in a contest but backed the two-time Brownlow Medallist to recover as quickly as possible.
“With Nathan, he dislocated his shoulder going back with the flight. It was another courageous act,” Bell said.
“The shoulder went back in reasonably easy and quickly. He’s a seriously tough footballer, and I don’t say that lightly, because the word tough gets thrown around a lot and everyone sees Nathan for the brilliant contested ball winner that he is and the aerialist that he is, but I don’t really think I’ve come across a guy who’s as tough as him where he puts his body regularly.
“We’ll wait and see what it means for him and how much footy he’s going to miss but we’d have to say that he’s unlikely this week.”
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Bell said he was more hopeful with small forward Mitch Crowden, who also hurt his shoulder late in the game in a marking contest.
“It was a stinger at this stage,” Bell said.
“It was in one of the last contests of the game, he took the mark, kicked the goal but just landed on the ground awkwardly and was a bit sore afterwards.”
Bell said he was hopeful Matt Taberner would be fit to take on Gold Coast on Saturday.
“He was really close. He trained well on Saturday and we were thinking he would be fine to go Sunday, then he just pulled up a little bit sore, which also is not unusual coming back from that type of injury, we so went a really conservative with Matt.
“I hope (he plays) we’ll see how he trains.”
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