THE Western Bulldogs are fearing key forward Josh Bruce tore his ACL in Sunday\u2019s loss to Essendon.<\/p>\n
The injury occurred in the dying seconds of the contest in a tackling attempt, following his three-goal performance.<\/p>\n
The shattering injury compounded what was arguably the Dogs\u2019 worst performance of the season, going down by 13 points to the Bombers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not looking good,\u201d Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge said of Bruce post-match.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur guys will confirm what the outcome is after a scan tomorrow.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t know the extent of it, you get ones that surprise you so we\u2019ll still hold out a bit of hope.\u201d<\/p>\n
Number one draft pick Jamarra Ugle-Hagan has been a regular fixture for the Bulldogs over the last month and will likely need to carry a heavier load in Bruce\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you consider that [Ugle-Hagan] has played five games now, is he ready to rip apart the last two games and a finals series?<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t think any young key forward, maybe other than Dermott [Brereton] in his first game when he kicked five [in a final] has done that,\u201d Beveridge said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have [Naughton] down there and what you’re alluding to is who are the next ones?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ll have to dig deep and we might have to do it a bit of a different way as we have in the past and that affects your decisions and probably your ball use going inside 50 a little bit more.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe challenge of this caper from a coaching point of view is finding a way when the template changes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bulldogs take on Hawthorn in Round 22 before completing the home-and-away season against Port Adelaide.<\/p>\n
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