{"id":613460,"date":"2026-04-17T18:34:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T18:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/613460\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T18:34:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T18:34:13","slug":"afl-star-sam-darcy-suffers-horrific-injury-in-western-bulldogs-clash-with-geelong-cats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/613460\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL star Sam Darcy suffers horrific injury in Western Bulldogs\u2019 clash with Geelong Cats"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bulldogs superstar Sam Darcy left the AFL world gravely concerned after going down with what appeared to be a serious knee injury at Kardinia Park.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old key forward, who is tipped to achieve greatness in the sport, collapsed in a heap with no one around him during the second quarter of his side\u2019s 131-56 defeat to Geelong Cats on Friday night.<\/p>\n

He clutched his left knee as he hit the ground, and was quick to bang the ground in frustration.<\/p>\n

Instantly, Richmond legend Matthew Richardson admitted on the live coverage: \u201cThat\u2019s not good, I feel sick, actually. He put some weight down on it and it collapsed under him.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Kayo Sports\u2019 Friday Night Football<\/a>, Gerard Whateley added there were \u201cgasps across the football world\u201d and that there was a \u201csickening sense of deja vu,\u201d \u2014 referencing the season-ending ACL tear Darcy\u2019s father, Luke, suffered 21 years ago at the same ground.<\/p>\n

Sam also had to recover from a fractured knee last year.<\/p>\n

The young prodigy did manage to get back to his feet and hobble off the field, but could not put any pressure on his left leg.<\/p>\n

Melbourne icon Garry Lyon said: \u201cIt was so dramatic and so severe, and he\u2019s a tough kid and we\u2019ve been here before.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all held our breath last year at Marvel and he got away with it on that occasion and he got back in six weeks. We can only hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs have provided an update but refuse to confirm just how severe the injury.<\/p>\n

Dogs\u2019 football boss Matthew Egan said: \u201cIt\u2019s obviously a pretty serious knee injury and the mechanism didn\u2019t look great, but we just can\u2019t confirm everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately I\u2019ve been here before and I\u2019ve said \u2018we think it\u2019s a serious knee injury and we think ACL\u2019 and it wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we need to be positive and just wait for the scans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leading sports physio Brien Seeney took to social media to have his say on the severity of the injury, reacting: \u201cCan see that left calf ripple as the tibia snaps back into place.<\/p>\n

\u201cHave almost always seen that come back as an ACL tear (this is not a diagnosis, just an analysis of the video).\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Concerning<\/p>\n

Footy fans were also quick to take to social media to voice their concern for Darcy \u2014 who has 12 goals and 64 disposals so far this season.<\/p>\n

John Donohoe said: \u201cThat is absolutely heartbreaking for Sam Darcy! Looked horrific!Hopefully we see him bigger and better in 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

BroBro added: \u201cThat\u2019s not good for Sam Darcy. Not good at all.. Hoping it\u2019s not an ACL.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jaz responded: \u201cMy heart breaks for Sam Darcy. He\u2019s such a great player. I hope whatever is wrong with his knee heals quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Michael Willson said: \u201cHate seeing the games best go down. Fingers crossed for Sam Darcy.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a nightmare night for the Bulldogs as Rory Lobb, Tom Liberatore, and James O\u2019Donnell all followed Darcy in being forced off with injuries.<\/p>\n

Originally published as \u2018I feel sick\u2019: Rising star suffers horror injury as AFL world rocked<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bulldogs superstar Sam Darcy left the AFL world gravely concerned after going down with what appeared to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-613460","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\/613460","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=613460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}