West Coast lose Jamie Cripps for start of 2022 season due to arm injury

West Coast will be without Jamie Cripps for the start of the 2022 season, with the forward set to miss at least six weeks with a torn pectoral muscle.

The club confirmed the 29-year-old had undergone surgery on the arm injury he sustained in last Friday’s match simulation training.

“Jamie Cripps will miss the early rounds of the 2022 AFL season after undergoing surgery for a torn pectoral muscle,” the club said in a statement.

Cripps fell awkwardly deep in the forward line in the second term of Friday’s game, before leaving the field assisted by two trainers, cradling his right arm.

Cripps, who has booted 230 goals in 183 Eagles games, again looms as an important part of West Coast’s structure amid a forward line that has plenty of question marks.

Jack Darling remains sidelined indefinitely over his COVID vaccination stance while young Oscar Allen is in cotton wool due to foot soreness, and Willie Rioli hasn’t played a senior game since 2019.

West Coast start the season against Gold Coast at Optus Stadium on Sunday, March 20.

Confirmation of Cripps being sidelined offset some positive pre-season news at the Eagles, with Liam Duggan ticking off on an important landmark on his way back from a knee injury by joining the main group for a training session on Monday morning.

Duggan, who has spent much of the summer doing running work on his own, joined a skills session that included some situational stoppage work, before doing an extra running session on his own after teammates had left the field.

The 25-year-old underwent a PCL reconstruction in September last year, a surgery which typically requires a six-month rehabilitation.