{"id":627139,"date":"2026-04-24T04:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T04:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/627139\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T04:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T04:30:09","slug":"afl-2026-footy-world-blown-away-after-western-bulldogs-massive-update-on-aaron-naughton-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/627139\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL 2026: Footy world blown away after Western Bulldogs’ massive update on Aaron Naughton incident"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Western Bulldogs<\/a> have confirmed that Aaron Naughton has avoided any serious injury – including concussion – after a scary incident that shocked the AFL<\/a> world on Thursday night. And there’s a chance he might not have to miss any games either.<\/p>\n

Naughton flipped over and landed on his head and neck from a great height after attempting a spectacular mark against the Sydney Swans. The Bulldogs player had to be taken from the ground in a neck brace on a medicab, and the AFL world was left holding its collective breath.<\/p>\n

\"Aaron<\/p>\n

Aaron Naughton has avoided any serious injury. Image: Getty\/Channel 7<\/p>\n

But in a brilliant twist, the Bulldogs have revealed he’s avoided any serious injury. The club said in a statement on Friday: “Scans have cleared Aaron Naughton of any serious structural damage to his neck. He has some muscle spasm and pain associated with the injury. There are no signs of concussion symptoms. He will be monitored over the coming days to determine his availability for this week’s game.”<\/p>\n

On Thursday night, coach Luke Beveridge said Naughton appeared to have strained his neck, but nothing more sinister. He didn’t need to take a trip to hospital on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

“He’s going home now and will get his neck looked at tomorrow,” Beveridge said after the 18.18 (126) to 9.6 (60) loss. “The bright side is there’s no signs of concussion.”<\/p>\n

Assistant coach Ben Reid said: “By all reports he’s good. He’s not concussed which is great, just a bit of a crink in his neck I think. He’s up and moving around which is good.”<\/p>\n

AFL world thankful after Aaron Naughton update<\/p>\n

Speaking on Channel 7 after the game, Mitch Cleary reported that Naughton was able to go home with his parents rather than head to hospital. “It was a sickening incident,” he said. “Fantastic news (there’s no serious injury) after what we saw.”<\/p>\n

Nick Riewoldt responded: “It was unbelievable. I don’t think I’ve seen a moment like that on a field where all four of us in the commentary box didn’t really know where to go. The range of outcomes was wide. To end up where we have with no hospital or ambulance is amazing.”<\/p>\n

\"Aaron<\/p>\n

Aaron Naughton was taken from the ground on a medicab.<\/p>\n

(AFL Photos via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Fellow commentators and fans were blown away that it wasn’t anything more serious. Many pointed out that Naughton could have suffered spinal damage, as was the serious nature of his fall.<\/p>\n

The news isn’t so good for Rory Lobb, who will miss up to a month with a hamstring injury. “He got through a bit of training, felt OK, and he felt it in another spot, a bit lower down,” Beveridge said,.<\/p>\n

“We scanned it again, and something showed up as a bit risky. The initial signs were that he got a knock, bit of bleeding, but then in another spot, he had some discomfort, so he’ll be out for a good month.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Western Bulldogs have confirmed that Aaron Naughton has avoided any serious injury – including concussion – after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[19060,43,663,44,102125,41,39,42,40,698],"class_list":["post-627139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-aaron-naughton","tag-headlines","tag-luke-beveridge","tag-news","tag-serious-injury","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-western-bulldogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627139","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=627139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}