Essendon champion Dustin Fletcher agrees the loss of talismanic midfielder Mark McVeigh for this week's clash against Richmond will serve as a big blow to the young Bombers outfit.
McVeigh will undergo an arthroscopy on his knee on Thursday after it became exceedingly swollen following Essendon's Round 15 victory over the Brisbane Lions.
It has since been revealed that damage to the surface lining of McVeigh's knee cartilage was responsible for the flare-up and the best case scenario will see the 27-year-old miss three matches.
"He saw the surgeon this morning and we'll know more later today when we train," Fletcher confirmed on Wednesday.
"He's definitely disappointed and so are we, he's been in great form and one of our top midfielders through the year."
"He was hoping last night that he wouldn't miss any more than four (weeks), in saying that if they get in there and clean it up and there's not as much damage as they think it might only be two or three weeks."
Fletcher said it was frustrating for McVeigh, who has already had his season interrupted by a hamstring injury sustained in Round 4, as he had only just rediscovered top form in the past few weeks.
The veteran full-back conceded that the absence of McVeigh, who was arguably best on ground in the Bombers' past two outings against Fremantle and Brisbane, will be exacerbated by the club-imposed suspension of livewire Andrew Lovett who failed to front for a compulsory training session on Monday morning.
With McVeigh and Lovett not available for selection, Essendon only has 27 players to choose from for Saturday afternoon's season-defining clash against the Tigers.
"It's a bit disappointing not having 'Lovey' there for the next couple of weeks ... I'm not sure who's gonna come in but if Ricky Dyson or someone like that comes in hopefully they can do the job and play well," said Fletcher.
The last time Essendon and Richmond met was back in Round 9 and the Bombers' first-quarter display in that match prompted coach Matthew Knights to publicly berate his men at the first change and Fletcher explained why the on-field dressing down was delivered.
"When you have the 18 players (on the field), you'd probably say 13, 14 players in the first quarter didn't do their job or didn't do their bit," the 33-year-old recalled.
But the Bombers haven't experienced such problems since then with four wins on the trot preceded by encouraging performances against top-eight sides Adelaide and Hawthorn.
However, Fletcher isn't surprised by the dramatic transformation of his team which has amazingly seen it come back from the brink with a 2-9 win-loss ratio into finals contention with seven weeks remaining in the season proper.
"We started (the season) pretty well and then we did have a lean patch (which included eight consecutive losses) but when you get a bit of the confidence going for the younger kids, and even the older guys, it does tend to work out alright," he said.
And Fletcher said he had spoken to his former premiership team-mate Dean Solomon since his infamous strike on Cameron Ling and he expressed some sympathy for the former Bomber.
"Solly's made a bit of a mistake but it is a bit hard, he's not going out there to really injure anyone but at a spur of the moment when you go to bump someone it's only that split-second you've got (to) change your mind or not do something," Fletcher explained.
"Solly will come back from it, he's a ripper bloke and we get along quite well at Essendon and (I'm) quite good friends with him. He'll learn from his mistake ... since he's been over in Fremantle he's been playing well and doing a job for them."