MELBOURNE forward Russell Robertson is not expected to play again in 2008 after the club confirmed that the spearhead ruptured his achilles tendon during Sunday's clash with St Kilda at Telstra Dome.
Robertson went down in the third term of the Demons' 79-point loss to the Saints, after receiving the ball in the middle of the ground and being tackled by a trio of players.
He was unable to put any weight on his leg and crawled towards the bench in agony before being helped from the field by trainers.
"He's got a ruptured achilles and he's out for the year. It's a real sour note, and it's a real sombre mood with the injury to Russell," coach Dean Bailey said after the game.
"He's a very upbeat guy and it's really disappointing, particularly with an injury to the achilles.
"He's out for, I'd safely say, the rest of the year."
A torn achilles can be a tricky injury to recover from, with a large part of a player's spring and leap coming from the powerful lower leg tendon.
However, Bailey is confident the 29-year-old will return from the complaint, hopefully with his jumping ability intact.
"He doesn't miss many games, and he's a player whose pretty tough in playing regular footy," Bailey said.
"I've got every confidence he'll come back, in what manner and how long and whether he can get back to his spring and everything [I don't know], but I hope he does because he's an exciting player to come and watch.
"There's no doubt for the rest of the year, we'll miss him."
It leaves Melbourne in dire straits up forward with David Neitz having retired last month due a serious neck injury, and Matthew Bate missing most of the third term of Sunday's game with a hand complaint.
But Bailey remained upbeat the permanent absence of Neitz and long-term non-appearance of Robertson will present opportunities to some emerging Melbourne goalkickers.
"[Michael] Newton, Paul Johnson … there could possibly be more of a chance for him to be more of a forward," he said.
"With the disappointment of David and Russell being the two key forwards, a great responsibility and a great deal of pressure will now go onto someone like Col Sylvia and [Brad] Miller and certainly Bate.
"Young Newton will be around the mark next week. The forwards have got to stand up now, and we've got to get our delivery into the forward line better.
"But there are opportunities and they've now got to take that. It is very disappointing though when two key forwards are not going to be there."
