Dermott Brereton was down at St Kilda working as a part-time assistant coach on Thursday afternoon when midfielder Jack Steele went down with a gruesome looking knee injury.
Steele is set to undergo scans after dislocating his kneecap at training and has been taken out of their side to take on Gold Coast.
Brereton saw the whole thing unfold from behind the goals.
“It was a forward set-up half-ground press situation, working out how to get the ball through traffic,” he told SEN’s KB & the Doc.
“Steele was running out to a one-on-one on the boundary and went down.
“I was standing behind the goals watching the movement of some of the younger forwards leading patterns and he was about 40m away and I heard him go down and I thought he’ll be alright, he’ll get up.
“It was fairly innocuous, but then I heard him start to growl and yelps that were guttural and I reckon he might have had a bit of shock in him, seeing his kneecap facing 90 degrees.
“They put it back in and a few of the young lads told Richo (Alan Richardson) to blow the whistle because they were shocked seeing it because it’s a ghastly looking thing to have happen.
“It’s not too bad in terms of an injury and the recovery and five minutes later, he’s genuinely tough Jack Steele, they got him up and he was still in a bit of shock and he walked off.
“He’s a genuinely tough kid. His kneecap went sideways.”
Saints General Manager of Football Simon Lethlean gave an update on Steele on the club’s website.
“We will know more once we have the results of the scans as to just how much footy he will miss,” Lethlean said.
“It’s obviously a disappointing blow for Jack and for the team but hopefully it’s an injury that doesn’t keep him out for too long.
“We have learnt this year that there is no benefit in being frustrated by injuries outside of our control. We will instead be focusing on who can step up through the midfield in Jack absence.”
