Freo hopeful Pearce will avoid surgery on Achilles

With Alex Pearce set to learn the full extent of his Achilles injury later in the week, the club believes that it may have avoided the worst-case scenario.

The Fremantle captain had a cruel ending to his day, having gone down with an Achilles injury, forcing him to be subbed out during the third quarter.

The key defender to that point had done a sterling job on Logan Morris, having nullified his impact. Morris would go on to kick three goals in the final quarter as Brisbane defeated the Dockers by seven points in Saturday’s Grand Final at the MCG.

Whilst he is yet to have scans, it was initially feared that the 31-year-old had ruptured his Achilles tendon.

But at this stage, Fremantle’s EGM of Football Joe Brierty, on the advice of the club’s medical staff, believes that it could be a partial tear and therefore not require surgery.

“He’s obviously pretty sore,” Brierty said to News Corp.

“We expect that he’s got a partial tear of his Achilles.

“If it’s a partial tear, he probably won’t need surgery. You never know with these things.

“When we get it scanned, it might be worse. At the moment, he hopefully won’t require surgery.

“We’ll have a look at all of that and get some advice from our medicos. But at the moment, we don’t think that it is (a full tear).”

Pearce is set to undergo scans on Monday.