St Kilda are paying a fearful price for their upset AFL win over Collingwood, with Mason Wood and Liam Henry sidelined and star forward Max King facing suspension.
Wood has paid a high price for his courage and will undergo surgery over the next day for the broken collarbone he suffered in the first quarter of Thursday night's MCG clash.
He was also concussed in the nasty collision with teammate Zaine Cordy as they went for a mark.
Wood will be out of action for six weeks.
Not long after the Saints confirmed Wood's prognosis on Friday afternoon, the AFL announced King had been offered a one-game ban for rough conduct against the Magpies' Finlay Macrae.
Unless the Saints successfully take the case to the tribunal, King will miss next week's game against Essendon.
Then came more bad news, with St Kilda releasing a second statement to confirm Henry has a high-grade left hamstring strain that will sideline him for six to eight weeks.
Henry was one of the Saints' best players until he went off in the last term.
The Saints had been hopeful it was only bad cramp.
“This is obviously a terrible blow for Liam, who has impressed in his first two games at the club,” Saints football boss David Misson said.
“Liam’s setback is far greater than we initially thought, especially given he has never had an injury of this type before."
Wood was stretchered off and taken to hospital early in Thursday night's 15-point win over the premiers.
Play was held up for several minutes before medical personnel could take Wood off the field.
"He's such a good lad. It was pretty courageous," coach Ross Lyon said post-match.
"He knocked himself out and broke a collarbone. We're concerned about him."
On Friday, the Saints expressed relief Wood was not hurt more severely.
“Obviously you’d prefer your players not get injured at all, but considering the angle and way Mason landed, we could’ve been dealing with something far more serious,” Misson said.
While the Saints lick their wounds, they still had much to celebrate after the win.
Lyon said the Saints learned their lessons well from last week's narrow loss to Geelong.
"It was a step forward. We have plenty of work to do, but confidence comes from action and we delivered the right actions," he said.
"We were pretty relentless from start to finish."
Lyon praised their young players, such as speedy defender Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera, and said the club's future looked bright.
As Collingwood slumped to a 0-3 start, Lyon said it was becoming more clear what needed to be done to stop the Magpies.
"If you're the reigning premier, you have clear signatures that the opposition need to deal with," he said.
"The competition has maybe taken a while, but we're seeing all those signatures. It's pretty clear. Often it's hard to stop, but we did a pretty good job of that."
