COLLINGWOOD players were reduced to tears at three-quarter time on Saturday after tagger Brent Macaffer suffered another serious knee injury.
The club suspects Macaffer ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee after twisting his knee during an innocuous moment in the third term of the eight-point win over GWS. He left the field immediately aided by trainers.
Macaffer missed the 2012 season after rupturing an ACL in his left knee.
"I really felt for Macaffer in particular,” Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley said after the club's gutsy eight-point win over the Giants in Sydney.
"When you go to the three-quarter time huddle and you can see some of his teammates in tears because they know what's happened and they know what he's been through ... that tells you something about the make-up of our playing group.
"The supporters of the club should rest assured that you have got a young senior group and a young up-and-coming talented group that are absolutely committed to this footy club and doing whatever they can to make a success of it."
Collingwood’s injury crisis deepened further with Dane Swan and Clinton Young both suffering hamstring injuries against the Giants.
The pair is unlikely to face Hawthorn next Friday night at the MCG in a game the Magpies must win to play finals.
The Pies are already reeling from injuries to Dayne Beams (knee), Travis Cloke (ankle), Heritier Lumumba (leg), Ben Reid (hamstring) and Alan Toovey (groin).
Collingwood sits inside the eight with an 11-10 win-loss record.
Despite the long list of players unavailable, Buckley rebuffed suggestions the team that would face Hawthorn might one of be the weakest to take the field in black-and-white in recent memory.
"If the majority of these blokes that played tonight are playing I wouldn't call it the weakest because they just displayed some real grit and endeavour," Buckley said.
"Regardless of what our injury profile looks like we will take the 22 fittest player onto the field and if we show the heart that we showed tonight we will give ourselves a chance.
"If we win next week we play finals."
Asked whether the interchange needed to be expanded Buckley said: "I think four interchange would be handy. I don't know if you'd need any more than that."
