MELBOURNE is hopeful that Christian Salem has avoided major knee damage after the defender forced from Wednesday night's season-opening victory over the Western Bulldogs following a brutal collision with Marcus Bontempelli.
Salem was substituted out of the clash just minutes in, having been crunched in a tackle from Bontempelli. He was replaced by Toby Bedford, with ice applied to his left knee immediately after the incident.
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It further depleted an already threadbare Melbourne backline, which was missing Jake Lever (foot), Michael Hibberd (calf), Trent Rivers (knee) and Harrison Petty (calf) from its Grand Final team.
However, speaking after the match, Demons coach Simon Goodwin revealed there were hopes the injury wasn't serious but said he still expected for Salem to miss a series of upcoming games.
"He'll have scans tomorrow," Goodwin said.
"We're pretty hopeful it won't be too bad. We'll just wait and see on that. We're hopeful that it's not the worst possible news. It might be a few weeks, but the first indications are that it's not looking too bad."
Lever, having been named to play, was a late withdrawal an hour before the match after failing a fitness test at the ground. It came after the news that he tore his plantar fascia over the weekend.
Adam Tomlinson was his replacement in the side, with Tom McDonald shifting into a defensive role, though there are hopes Lever will be fit to face Gold Coast in round two given the 10-day break between games.
"He tore his plantar fascia on Sunday," Goodwin said.
"For people that don't know, that's a good thing. That gives him a chance to really recover, because it's been niggling him for four or five weeks now. We'll let that settle over the next 10 days until our next opponent.
"We'll see how he pulls up over the next four of five days. We're hopeful he might be available for next week, but we'll wait and see."
With five of the seven from its premiership backline missing, Melbourne turned to some unfamiliar faces in its defensive unit to help thwart the Western Bulldogs and cruise to a satisfying 26-point win in the Grand Final rematch.
McDonald partnered Tomlinson, Steven May and Joel Smith as the side's key defenders, while Jayden Hunt, Angus Brayshaw and James Jordon all spent time behind the ball to help replace Salem's missing run.
"I spoke to the players in pre-season around opportunity and that we'd be challenged in a range of different areas throughout the year … leading into round one, we were challenge in one area especially," Goodwin said.
"To lose Salem early in the night and for Tom McDonald to go back, I was really proud of our defence. I thought they held up incredibly well, especially in that third quarter when they had 15 entries for two points.
"They did a terrific job. Joel Smith came in after missing last year, Adam Tomlinson came back from an ACL, Jayden Hunt missed out last year, then you throw Tom and Angus Brayshaw in there. It's a bit of a different-looking back six, but they got the job done."
