{"id":113571,"date":"2021-08-08T09:38:55","date_gmt":"2021-08-08T09:38:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=113571"},"modified":"2021-08-08T10:57:20","modified_gmt":"2021-08-08T10:57:20","slug":"dogs-fearing-the-worst-for-bruce-after-shock-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=113571","title":{"rendered":"Dogs fearing the worst for Bruce after shock loss"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/afl\/western-bulldogs\" title=\"Western Bulldogs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Western Bulldogs<\/a>&#x27; premiership hopes have been dealt a major blow with star forward <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/afl\/josh-bruce\" title=\"Josh Bruce\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Josh Bruce<\/a> suffering what is suspected to be an ACL injury against Essendon.<\/p>\n<p>Bruce suffered the injury in the dying stages of the Bulldogs&#x27; shock 13-point loss after his left leg bent awkwardly in a last-ditch tackle attempt.<\/p>\n<p><strong><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/afl\/port-adelaide-condemns-racist-abuse-aliir-aliir-after-showdown-win\/01e12091-9a41-48ad-a6b1-571a66c26ba1\" title=\"MORE AFL NEWS: Aliir the latest AFL star subjected to shocking racist abuse\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>MORE AFL NEWS: <\/strong>Aliir the latest AFL star subjected to shocking racist abuse<\/a><\/p>\n<p>As the siren blared and the Essendon theme song rung around an empty Marvel Stadium, Bruce was left writhing in pain in the Dogs&#x27; forward pocket, clutching his left knee.<\/p>\n<p>The left-footer was attended to by the club&#x27;s medical staff but was unable to place any significant weight on his leg as Essendon players checked on his wellbeing. <\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"7defb162-dced-48aa-9088-553543877fb7\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/7defb162-dced-48aa-9088-553543877fb7\" alt=\"Josh Bruce\" data-width=\"1396\" data-height=\"785\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Following the match, Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge indicated that the club suspected Bruce had torn the Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) in his left knee.<\/p>\n<p>The 29-year-old is set to undergo scans on Monday to confirm the extent of the injury.<\/p>\n<p>Losing Bruce is a blow the Bulldogs can ill-afford on the eve of a finals campaign, with the veteran forward leading the club&#x27;s goal-kicking tally with 48 majors so far in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Coming into the contest having not beaten the Bulldogs since Luke Beveridge took over as senior coach in 2015, the Bombers overcame an early 19-point deficit to shock the ladder-leaders.<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"5a726514-4acb-4729-b847-5036f6008a89\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/5a726514-4acb-4729-b847-5036f6008a89\" alt=\"Peter Wright\" data-width=\"1396\" data-height=\"785\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Essendon forward Peter Wright, who the club acquired in a trade for a future fourth-round pick, kicked seven straight goals in a career-best performance. <\/p>\n<p>Behind Wright&#x27;s dominance up forward, the Bombers offset a massive Inside 50 differential of 21 and a possession differential of 50.<\/p>\n<p>The win gives Essendon&#x27;s finals hopes a major boost, with winnable games against the Gold Coast and Collingwood on the horizon in the final fortnight of the home and away season.<\/p>\n<p>Ben Rutten&#x27;s side is currently ninth on the ladder with 36 points and a healthy percentage of 103.4, two points adrift of the eighth-placed GWS Giants.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong><\/strong><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/login.nine.com.au\/login?client_id=wwos&amp;redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwwos.nine.com.au&amp;newsletter=true\" title=\"For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><strong>For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><em><strong><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>The Western Bulldogs&#x27; premiership hopes have been dealt a major blow with star forward Josh Bruce suffering what is suspected to be an ACL injury <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=113571\" title=\"Dogs fearing the worst for Bruce after shock loss\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113571"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=113571"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113573,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113571\/revisions\/113573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=113571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=113571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=113571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}