FREMANTLE’S Michael Barlow has suffered a blow ahead of the Dockers’ September campaign, with the star midfielder to miss two weeks with a broken thumb.
Barlow suffered the injury to his left thumb during the third quarter of Sunday’s 19-point win over Hawthorn.
The Dockers have confirmed he will miss the final two games of the home and away season.
However, the injury will not require surgery.
The injury is a huge body blow for the Dockers, who are fighting for a top-four finish. They could also be without reigning best and fairest Nat Fyfe for the rest of the home and away season.
The Match Review Panel offered Fyfe a two-match suspension for an off-the-ball strike on Hawthorn's Jordan Lewis.
Fyfe is contesting the charge at the Tribunal on Tuesday night.
Despite the potential loss of two vital midfielders, teammate Danyle Pearce is confident his teammates can step up.
"If we're missing both, then the next person that steps in has a role to play and again the whole midfield group has to step up," Pearce said.
"We have shown over the last few years that when someone does fall out or get injured, that a player has come in and filled their role and everyone else has stepped up.
"I think we had a challenging patch last year where we had a few big players out and the next person just stepped in and the season just kept rolling."
The Dockers were without both Barlow and Fyfe in round three and four this season. They lost convincingly to Hawthorn in round three but won handsomely against Essendon the following week.
Fyfe returned from suspension in round five but Barlow also missed rounds five and six with a left knee sprain and the Dockers lost both matches to the Sydney Swans and North Melbourne.
In better news for Fro, Hayden Ballantyne is likely to be fit for Sunday's clash with the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba after he missed last week with hamstring tightness.
Pearce said there was no margin for error for the Dockers in the next two weeks despite their impressive 19-point win over reigning premiers Hawthorn.
"If we lose our next two games we might even slip out (of fourth)," Pearce said.
"So we can't look past Brisbane. We've got to beat them to have any chance to remain in the top four.
"I think everyone would've watched the Brisbane game on the weekend and they were incredible against Collingwood so we are under no illusions that we've got to be 100 per cent switched on this week."
