BRISBANE midfield ace Josh Dunkley has been ruled out of the Lions' clash with West Coast due to a calf injury.
Dunkley left the field early in last Thursday night's win over Richmond with what coach Chris Fagan described as a corked calf and was sporting a compression bandage at the Lions' Springfield headquarters.
He did not make an appearance at the club's open training session and has been ruled out, with the gun to be "further assessed next week".
Brisbane has already been forced into a number of changes to face the Eagles at the Gabba on Saturday, with Lincoln McCarthy (suspension) and Callum Ah Chee (concussion) unavailable.
With a nine-day break between games they also took the chance to nurse some regular players through a lighter session on Tuesday.
Jack Payne (ankle) watched most of the session in trainers, but is expected to play.
Charlie Cameron and Eric Hipwood were among others that did more jogging than drills, although there's no indication they are in any doubt.
Speaking prior to the session, vice-captain Hugh McCluggage was confident the Lions could cover Dunkley's absence.
"He's been extremely important to us, so hopefully he gets up, but if he doesn't, Dev Robertson played in the midfield when he went down in the last quarter and did some really nice things," McCluggage said.
"We've got lots of options playing in the VFL and lots of depth.
"You don't want to lose players, but hopefully we can cover them."
Jarryd Lyons would be an obvious candidate to come into the midfield after dominating the VFL all season, while Dayne Zorko's impending return would also bolster that part of the ground.
Daniel Rich and Jack Gunston are now entering week four of their training block and will be considered for a return this week.
McCluggage said Brisbane would not be taking West Coast lightly, despite the Eagles sitting in last with a percentage under 50.
"Nothing changes for us," he said.
"We've actually got a lot of our players that have been in that position before, down the bottom end of the ladder and I know in 2017, 2018 when we were coming up against good sides, we saw it as an opportunity to knock them off and a great opportunity to test yourself against the best.
"They've got a lot of young players … which is exactly the position we were in, and you're young, you're enthusiastic and you just want to challenge yourself against the best.
"We know that they're going to bring their best shot."
