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Suns confident Thompson avoided third ACL

Luckless Gold Coast defender Rory Thompson suffered a knee injury against the Western Bulldogs but the Suns are confident he's avoided another ACL rupture.

RORY THOMPSON.
RORY THOMPSON. Picture: Chris Hyde/Getty Images

Gold Coast are confident Rory Thompson has avoided a third ACL tear after the luckless defender was forced out of their loss to the Western Bulldogs with a left knee injury.

Just three games into his AFL comeback, Thompson, 31, hobbled off after a contest in the second term at Mars Stadium and was substituted for Oleg Markov.

The defender had missed all of the 2019, 2020 and 2021 seasons after rupturing his left ACL in early 2019 then partially tearing his right in August 2020, but returned to play his role in wins over Sydney and Fremantle.

"Probably can give you information that we're not fearing the worst," coach Stuart Dew said.

"So it's obviously a knee injury but at this point, we think it's not the worst-case. So we'll just have to wait and see from there and we feel for Rory.

"He's been integral when he's come back in he and makes players better around him but it'll be an opportunity for someone else."

Jy Farrar (concussion) missed the second half, with the Suns fighting out the 19-point loss wit three on the bench.

"I haven't had a heap of time to check on Jy but that's (a standard concussion) the information so far," Dew said.

"Credit to our guys. I think for all the second half we were down one.

"Our guys will take a lot of goodness out of that in terms of the fact that they were able to fight on under duress, and keep coming."

Dew delighted in an outstanding performance from youngster Joel Jeffrey, who played despite the death of a family member during the week and booted five goals, including a spectacular overhead kick.

"We've seen it on the track, he puts the work in. So I think he'll get more belief," Dew said.

"Because we've been pretty keen to get Joel in once he had some continuity in his game and some consistency and I think we saw today what he's capable of.

"We support Joel and were guided by Joel and his family in what he wanted and he made them very proud today."

Gold Coast are now 4-6 ahead of games against Hawthorn and North Melbourne in the Northern Territory.

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