Essendon coach Brad Scott doesn’t expect to see young gun Harrison Jones for a while after horror ankle injury

Essendon is bracing for a long period without young forward Harrison Jones, who was in a “lot of pain” after he went down with a dislocated ankle amid injury “carnage” for the Bombers in Thursday night’s win over North Melbourne. Jones landed awkwardly on his left ankle late in the third quarter and was eventually stretchered off the ground during the three-quarter time interval. He was at the forefront of Essendon’s “carnage”, as it also lost defender Jordan Ridley to a hamstring and will sweat on the scans of small forward Jade Gresham. Ridley went down on the cusp of halftime and Gresham was forced to sit out the tense final minutes of the game with a tight adductor. Essendon coach Brad Scott said Jones was in significant pain and would be sent to hospital for his sickening ankle injury. “Yeah, it was carnage there in the second half in particular, well Ridley before that (too),” Scott said. “The Jones one, dislocated ankle is the minimum, that’s what it looks like, but he’ll go to hospital and have further assessments (to see) if there is any further damage there. “He’s in a fair bit of pain and his ankle is pointing the wrong way, it obviously doesn’t sound good. “Ridley hamstring, fresh injury unrelated to anything he’s had prior, in his 100th game, we talked about his rollercoaster career … he’s had to overcome some adversity and just as soon as he gets a free run at it, another injury. “Gresham couldn’t back on with a bit of adductor tightness, (we’ll) get that checked, get that assessed and get back to you.” Jones being stuck on the far side of the ground prompted the umpires and medical staff to put his wellbeing first. Scott praised the umpires, the medical teams and his own players for their composed response to the incident. “I didn’t have any part in that (the delayed stretcher), that was just up to the medical teams and the umpires, I thought the umpires were pretty good,” he said. “I can’t remember a time where the umpires come up to our huddle at three-quarter time and said ‘look, this might take a while’. “It can be a concern, you look across and you’re a couple of players down, you have to reshuffle players into positions that aren’t their primary or their secondary roles. “I thought the players were pretty calm and composed in that situation which was pleasing.” Essendon, which has now won four of its past five matches, faces Sydney at Marvel Stadium next Saturday afternoon.