McMahon has been struggling with the issue since the round 13 clash with Skipton and was again forced from the field in the first half of Saturday’s qualifying final win over Buninyong when it flared again.

The 30-year-old forward, who is a crucial part of the Tigers’ tilt at the premiership, believes he is only a 50-50 chance of getting up for the team’s next match in two weekends’ time.

Springbank will play the winner of Bungaree and Hepburn for a berth in the decider and a chance at redeeming last season’s grand final defeat.

“(It will only be) 14 days from when it happened so it’s probably not ideal in terms of only being a couple of weeks, but I’ll probably know early to mid next week how I’ll go with that (preliminary final),” McMahon told The Courier.

McMahon has now had two attempts at returning to the field since sustaining the injury against the Emus, but both times he has left the field before half time.

He admits playing on Saturday against the Bombers might have been a mistake, despite feeling fine after a fitness test the night before.

“It is hard because you don’t realise you’ve got the injury until you start playing footy, basically. It’s quite a painful one when you try and play through it,” McMahon said.

McMahon said the injury, in his predominant kicking leg, was the same as one he had while playing for Lake Wendouree in the club’s Ballarat league premiership year of 2010.