Port Adelaide ruckman Scott Lycett will miss at least one game because of a knee injury which forced Dante Visentini into the most sudden of AFL debuts.
The Power say Lycett will miss up to two games after pulling out of Port's four-point win against Essendon literally at the last minute when troubled by a small cartilage tear in a knee during pre-game warm-ups.
Melbourne-born Visentini got strapped and was given his debut jumper by a property steward, only for Lycett to declare himself fit.
But leaving the warm-up, Lycett changed his mind, though Visentini had already changed out of his playing strip and returned to the grandstand.
Visentini went back to the rooms to change and came on midway through the opening quarter.
"On one hand it might have been good for him because he didn't have any of those nerves and didn't have to think about it too much," Port assistant coach Chad Cornes said on Monday.
"But on the other hand, you miss the pre-game ceremony when you have got your parents and your family there and you get your guernsey presented, you don't get to enjoy that build up of a normal debut game.
"But things happen, you have got to adapt on the fly."
Visentini's mother and father were also caught out.
"His parents got there by a quarter time, they were out for dinner somewhere and then their car ran out of petrol on the way," Cornes said.
"So it's a bit of chaos but, all in all, a day I'm sure he will remember forever."
Port substituted Visentini, a 20-year-old recruited with pick 56 at the 2021 national draft, at three quarter-time.
"We subbed him out, it was a bit rude looking back on it, wasn't it?" Cornes said.
"But he's a guy with a great attitude, great mindset and he took that really well."
