Adelaide forward Josh Rachele has been sent for knee surgery, with an unclear timeline on when he'll play again.
The 22-year-old has been cleared of serious ligament damage in his left knee injured in Sunday's win over Melbourne.
But scans revealed Rachele tore a tissue at the back of the knee joint and also suffered bone bruising when landing awkwardly in a marking contest.
The Crows will have a better understanding of Rachele's outlook post-surgery, the club's fitness boss Darren Burgess says.
“He’ll have surgery to elevate the bone in his knee and likely be in a brace for a few weeks," Burgess said.
“Once out of the brace, we’ll progress his training loads from there.”
Rachele was relieved when allayed of fears he'd torn his anterior cruciate ligament or posterior cruciate ligament.
"Worst case scenario, your head goes to that (ACL) instantly, so I am very lucky ... structurally the ACL and PCL are all good," he told reporters.
Rachele had been in the midst of a career-best scoring season, kicking 25 goals from a dozen games.
But he'll likely be absent beyond third-placed Adelaide's season-shaping stretch against the Western Bulldogs, Gold Coast, Port Adelaide and Hawthorn.
