Lincoln Barnes will return to see a specialist on Thursday to find out the extent of an eye injury that has derailed his 2017 season.
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Waubra’s star onballer has taken leave from work and been confined indoors following a round 10 incident that has left him with bleeding to the eye.
Barnes suffered the injury deep in the final term of the game against Hepburn when he clashed with Burras forward Jackson Hogan.
Vision of the incident obtained by The Courier shows Barnes running back with the flight of the ball before appearing to come into contact with Hogan’s knee.
The 24-year-old immediately falls to the ground and holds his head in his hands.
There was no report made by umpires following the incident.
Barnes said he was in a lot of pain after the blow and had believed his injuries weren’t overly serious before the specialist found some significant bleeding to the eye.
“There was a few cuts to the eyelid and a possible small little fracture to the socket, but now we are just discovering it’s more the actual eye that’s got the damage to it,” Barnes said.
Barnes said his vision remained a little blurred, but thought it had improved throughout the days since the incident.
“I honestly have no idea about any internal bleeding, what the long-term effects or short-term effects are of the eye,” he said.
“It really is until Thursday where I find out.
“It’s obviously an eye and I’ve only got two of them. So if it’s serious then I’ll have to consider what I can do and I might have to change my game style a little bit. Instead of running back with the packs, I might have to do something else – I don’t know.”
Barnes has been a boom recruit for Waubra since joining from Lake Wendouree ahead of the 2016 Central Highlands Football League season.
He won the Roos’ senior best and fairest last year and has been one of their standouts in another strong campaign in 2017.
Barnes missed last Saturday’s loss to Springbank, which saw the Roos slide out of the top eight ahead of this weekend’s competition break.