Hawthorn forward Mitch Lewis was a surprising addition to the injury list when the teams were named on Thursday.
It was revealed the 22-year-old suffered a concussion in a boxing sparring session at training.
Hawks assistant coach Craig McRae has revealed further information about the incident, labelling it an unfortunate accident.
“It’s a shame. I’ve put a lot of time into Mitch and have great belief he can make it at this level consistently. He’s shown some great signs of that,” McRae told AFL Nation.
“He zigged when he should’ve zagged and copped one and unfortunately he’s not going to be there tonight.”
McRae clarified that the sparring session did not actually involve punches at the head.
“We were just doing some body punches to be honest and he ducked,” he said.
“It was an unfortunate incident and we’ll miss him.”
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