HAWTHORN's fears for Matt Suckling have been realised after scans on Sunday confirmed the defender has ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.

Suckling will consult with a specialist during the week and undergo a traditional knee reconstruction, the Hawks said.

The half-back had to be helped from the field during Saturday's one-point loss to Richmond in Launceston.

The 24 year-old's right knee buckled underneath him during the third quarter of the Aurora Stadium clash, and he was immediately subbed off.

Watch the Suckling injury here

The Hawks were upbeat about Suckling's rehabilitation prospects, with scans showing little additional damage to the knee.

Suckling remains upbeat despite the setback, the club said. 

"It's obviously a devastating thing to happen to Matt on the eve of the season," football manager Mark Evans said.

"But his attitude will be to throw himself into his rehab program and come back a stronger player from this."

Suckling joins Michael Osborne, Brendan Whitecross and Alex Woodward (twice) as Hawks who have needed reconstructions since the start of 2012.

Speaking after Saturday's match, coach Alastair Clarkson said his team would have no choice but to replace Suckling with another player and try to overcome the playmaker's loss.

Watch Alastair Clarkson's post-match press conference here

He pointed to West Coast last year, who finished only just outside the top four despite missing important forwards Mark Le Cras (knee), Josh Kennedy (foot) and Mark Nicoski (hamstring) for most of the season.

"As disappointing as it is for the player – and it's shattering, because it's 12 months out of footy – but you've just got to forge ahead," Clarkson said.

"There's no other way, both for the club and the player.

"We've probably lost 'Suckers' today, and that's disappointing, but we'll just have to replace him with another bloke and forge on."

Hawthorn players who sat out the game the game immediately began tweeting messages of support for Suckling as he was substituted with the injury.
Despite the result, Clarkson was happy with his young team's effort, given Lance Franklin, Cyril Rioli, Brad Sewell and Luke Hodge, among others, were all missing.

He insisted Hawthorn was not behind in its preparation for round one, even though it has not managed a win in the NAB Cup.

"We're not playing catch up," Clarkson said.

"We just know that our preparation hasn't been as fast-tracked as some other sides who have got probably three or four weeks' [training] on us.

"We also know that we don't have to play until the last game of round one, so our preparation is just a little bit different to a lot of the other sides.

"We're reasonably pleased with where we are physically, and we'll just fine tune our preparation in the next couple of weeks."