{"id":794215,"date":"2026-07-11T21:08:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T21:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/794215\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T21:08:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T21:08:16","slug":"afl-2026-zak-butters-ankle-injury-port-adelaide-vs-st-kilda-video-latest-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/794215\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL 2026: Zak Butters ankle injury, Port Adelaide vs St Kilda, video, latest news"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a Saturday of carnage for Port Adelaide<\/a>, superstar midfielder Zak Butters might\u2019ve played his last game for the club. <\/p>\n

Butters\u2019 day was over in the third quarter of Port\u2019s clash with St Kilda at Marvel Stadium after landing awkwardly on his ankle in a marking contest. <\/p>\n

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The stand-in captain clutched higher up his ankle while wincing in pain, eventually helped from the ground as he was unable to put any weight on his foot. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s done something here,\u201d Bulldogs great Brad Johnson said in reaction. <\/p>\n

Brownlow medallist Gerard Healy added: \u201cThat looks like a syndesmosis (injury); he\u2019s grabbing the wrong spot. The ankle isn\u2019t supposed to go that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saints great Leigh Montagna added: \u201cThe superstar can hardly put any weight on that ankle \u2026 It\u2019s been a game of carnage, and that might be the biggest story of them all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Super Saturday Live\u2019s Jay Clark shared the latest on the situation, with Port Adelaide preparing for a \u201csevere\u201d outcome. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a potential high-grade syndesmosis injury for Zak Butters, which could mean surgery and (that) his last game for the club (has been played),\u201d Clark said on Fox Footy. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey have scans tomorrow to determine the severity – it doesn\u2019t look good. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a suspected severe ankle injury at this stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

In mild cases, syndesmosis injuries – if that\u2019s ultimately his diagnosis – typically require at least six weeks of recovery. In some cases, it\u2019s months. <\/p>\n

Port Adelaide coach Josh Carr couldn\u2019t provide much clarity post-game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt didn\u2019t look great, obviously ankle and to what extent \u2014 syndesmosis, who knows \u2014 it\u2019s obviously not looking good and the vision speaks for itself,\u201d Carr said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll have to wait and see. We had a bit going on through the game, Zak going down, he had a great quarter in that third quarter.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see the way that he plays, he never gives up and in that (contest) he probably didn\u2019t need to get himself into that situation, it\u2019s just who he is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Butters, to that point in the game, had already tallied 26 disposals, five clearances and four tackles as the Power mounted a threatening comeback at Docklands. <\/p>\n

But on the same day that Mitch Georgiades and Lachie Jones were also ruled out mid-game with injuries, the dynamic ball-winner looks set for a stint on the sidelines. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe big story is Zak Butters,\u201d former Hawks sharpshooter Ben Dixon said on Fox Footy at three-quarter-time. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see his right ankle got caught under Max Hall as he attempted to spoil. <\/p>\n

\u201cA bit of a sickening sight when you can see it get caught underneath and go the other way. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s on the interchange now, he\u2019s got the boot and sock off – he was in real trouble coming from the ground. <\/p>\n

\u201cA huge story \u2026 he\u2019ll take no further part.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crazy collision takes down two players | 00:28<\/p>\n

Depending on the severity of Butters\u2019 injury, this might\u2019ve been the in-demand free agent\u2019s final Port Adelaide appearance, although Carr wasn\u2019t wanting to elaborate on that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will be the big story coming out of the game, because depending on how serious the injury is, potentially, it could be the last time we see him in Port Adelaide colours,\u201d Montagna said post-game. <\/p>\n

Healy said: \u201cThat\u2019s the reality of it. There\u2019s every chance he\u2019s not playing (again) \u2026 it looked awfully like a bad sprain – syndesmosis, if it is, would be highly unlikely he plays again for the club. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut until there\u2019s a scan, you never know.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about that possibility post-game, Carr didn\u2019t want to go into it too much.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what he\u2019s feeling, you might have to ask him, he\u2019d be obviously pretty flat as we are,\u201d Carr said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty flat with losing a player and obviously a very good player.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a Saturday of carnage for Port Adelaide, superstar midfielder Zak Butters might\u2019ve played his last game for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":794216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,85,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-794215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794215","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=794215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/794216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}