{"id":55612,"date":"2025-08-09T15:00:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T15:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/55612\/"},"modified":"2025-08-09T15:00:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T15:00:11","slug":"bombers-skipper-suffers-broken-hand-will-miss-250th-game-afl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/55612\/","title":{"rendered":"Bombers skipper suffers broken hand, will miss 250th game &#8211; AFL News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\/games-centre\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"305\" height=\"40\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" style=\"float:right;\" class=\"play-games-banner\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1752988028_499_ZeroHanger_GamesCentre.png.webp.webp\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Essendon&#8217;s injury woes have gone from bad to worse overnight, with captain <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\/afl\/players\/zac-merrett\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Zach Merrett<\/a> reportedly suffering a break in his hand during Essendon&#8217;s loss to Geelong.<\/p>\n<p>9 News\u00a0reporter Nat Yoannidis believes the injury will mean Merrett faces at least one week on the sidelines, delaying his 250th <a href=\"https:\/\/www\/zerohanger.com\" rel=\"nofollow\">AFL<\/a> game until the final round of the season &#8211; assuming he is able to get fit for that match.<\/p>\n<p>Merrett&#8217;s injury adds to the growing toll coming from the fallout of Friday night&#8217;s 44-point loss at GMHBA Stadium, with young gun forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\/bombers-coach-provides-injury-update-on-young-forward-166534\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Archer May also expected to miss time<\/a> with an ankle sprain.<\/p>\n<p>Essendon rookie <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\/afl\/players\/luamon-lual\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Luamon Lual<\/a> was also substituted from the clash before half-time after a mid-air collision with Geelong&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\/afl\/players\/mark-oconnor\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mark O&#8217;Connor<\/a>, with his availability for Essendon&#8217;s Friday night clash with St Kilda next week still unclear.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Just when you thought it couldn\u2019t get any worse for Essendon on the injury front. <\/p>\n<p>Understand Zach Merrett suffered a break in his hand last night and will miss at least 1 match. <\/p>\n<p>Friday\u2019s clash with St Kilda was due to be game 250 for the skipper. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/9NewsMelb?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@9NewsMelb<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FootyonNine?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@FootyonNine<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Nat Yoannidis (@NatYoannidis) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NatYoannidis\/status\/1954034433709027691?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">August 9, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>More to come&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>        &#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n        &#13;<br \/>\n                        &#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n    <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; &#13; Essendon&#8217;s injury woes have gone from bad to worse overnight, with captain Zach Merrett reportedly suffering&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-55612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}