MELBOURNE has confirmed star ruckman Max Gawn's right hamstring injury is worse than first feared, with scans on Sunday revealing tendon damage.

The 25-year-old contested a centre bounce during the second quarter against Geelong, followed up his tap work and attempted to lay a tackle on Cats skipper Joel Selwood, only to pull up lame after sliding to ground.

Demons football manager Josh Mahoney said Gawn would consult a surgeon on Monday, and anticipated his recovery time to be longer than a standard four-week hamstring injury.

"The scans today showed that Max's hamstring strain had some tendon involvement and as a result he will see a surgeon tomorrow to determine whether he requires surgery," Mahoney told the club's website.

"At this stage, it's too early to determine the exact length of time that Max will miss, however with the tendon involvement, we expect his recovery to be longer than your traditional hamstring injury."

Gawn immediately signalled to the bench for assistance after the incident and hobbled off the ground from the centre square.

Initial fears were that Gawn had hurt his already-strapped right knee, but the club confirmed during half time that he had instead injured his hamstring.

On Saturday, Demons coach Simon Goodwin believed Gawn had suffered a "standard hamstring" injury.

Gawn, who was last year's sole All Australian ruckman, has had a couple of injury scares in the early part of the season.

The 64-gamer experienced back soreness in round one and landed heavily on his wrist in a training mishap just over a week ago.

Back-up ruckman Jake Spencer looms as the obvious replacement for Gawn after performing well in VFL affiliate Casey's final pre-season practice match against Werribee on Saturday.

Casey coach Justin Plapp told AFL.com.au on Sunday that Spencer was the leading ruckman on the ground.

"(He) competed really strongly and was able to mark the ball really well around the ground," Plapp said.

"He dominated the hit-outs, so from that point of view, he had a pretty strong performance, which is pleasing."