ST KILDA is counting a hefty injury toll following its much-needed 15-point win over Carlton, with Hunter Clark and Dougal Howard sustaining a broken nose and knee injury respectively in the bruising encounter.
With just over seven minutes remaining in the final term, Clark was stretchered off in a neck brace after he and teammate Dan Butler were involved in a horrific clash of heads.
The incident came just over a year after Clark broke his jaw along with suffering nerve and dental damage following a collision with former Crow David Mackay which saw him miss five games late last season.
Despite re-emerging to sing the song with his teammates post-game, Ratten confirmed Clark had broken his nose, which he said was "not in great shape" and will need X-rays.
"Hunter's got a broken nose. It looks like a compound fracture," Ratten said.
"It's pretty ugly so he's had a bad run. He's put his head in some wrong spots and been cleaned up and that doesn't usually happen in the game.
"But he's brave, tough, he's done everything and he was probably one player you go, 'He's down a little bit' but found a way and then he has that contest, and that was sort of our night I reckon.
"Acts like that and it wasn't always perfect but he was trying to do the right thing for the team."
Ratten, however, wasn't sure of the severity of Howard's knee injury after the key defender was subbed off early in the third term.
The key defender initially hurt his knee late in the second term but tried to play on after half-time, before succumbing to the blow merely moments into the second half.
"He thought he was all right. He just had a bit of a knee complaint and we're not sure if it's a bit of cartilage or something there," Ratten said.
"We will get that scanned and work through that early next week and see what happens. But he went back on and he felt fine and then just a movement or a twist sort of got a catchment there.
"Whether it is cartilage or not, we will work that out."
In more promising news, Ratten said Butler, who played on following the collision with Clark, "should be fine", along with Rowan Marshall, who also finished the game after "winding himself" and going down to the rooms.
The win snapped a three-game losing streak for St Kilda and put it back inside the top eight for the time being, heading into a difficult fortnight against Fremantle and the Western Bulldogs.
"I think it's really pleasing for the players," Ratten said.
"They've worked so hard during the season and we had a three-week period where we didn't win games. One, where we sort of, against Brisbane ran out of men... but the last two weeks have been below-par.
"I am just really pleased for them to get back on the winners' list but play the way we want to play."
Meanwhile, Carlton coach Michael Voss lamented his side's wastefulness in front of goal, along with its "overuse" at key moments which made them pay at both ends of the ground.
"A bit of overuse, (we have to) recognise when the heats coming at you and a little bit of overuse, the one extra handball that probably wasn't needed," Voss said.
"Back half, I think we conceded seven-odd goals out of the back half. So that hurt us. And then clearly when we got our opportunities we weren't able to convert it.
"There's not too many games where you get 29, 30 shots on goal and you're gonna get 57 per cent scores per entry and you lose the game. So we managed to find a way to do that tonight.
"Our second-half response was pretty significant. The boys were able to correct a lot of things... but when we got our opportunities we just couldn't put scoreboard pressure on them enough."
In positive news for the Blues, Voss confirmed Jacob Weitering is set to return from a shoulder injury to take on West Coast, along with small forward Matt Owies and Jack Martin, while Sam Durdin "might" also be back.
