BALLARAT Miners guard David Crisp is expected to be out of action until after the mid-season bye after injuring his hamstring this week.
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Crisp has been averaging 13 points this season, with a season high of 21 against Casey.
Head coach Luke Sunderland said Crisp's place in the starting line-up for Saturday night's away clash with Keilor Thunder will be taken by the in-form Will Hynes.
"Crisp hurt it on Tuesday, I think the big work load with him having come over after not playing for a while probably caused the issue," he said.
"Will has been playing great and hopefully he can carry that onto a bigger role."
The Miners play back-to-back away matches across two weeks before the bye over the Queen's Birthday long weekend, which Sunderland said would give the team a good opportunity to be able to build into the second half of the season.
The biggest issue seemingly facing the Miners this week will be stopping Keilor big Jacob Lampkin who had 20 points and 16 rebounds last Saturday night before backing up with 22 and 10 the following day.
"Keilor have come up from Big V and are coached by an ex-Miners youth league player who's coached the squad all the way up," Sunderland said.
"Their record doesn't do them much justice as to how good they've been. They've been getting off to really good starts, they lead Mount Gambier for three quarters, so that shows their quality.
"They're tough, they're well drilled, they make good shots and are a testament to just how strong the league is across the board."
Sunderland said the opening form of import JD Miller who played his first two games last weekend was very encouraging.
Miller top scored on Sunday with 19 points with his big presence around the ball adding the strength that the team had been lacking in the opening rounds.
"JD has just come from Germany so he is just chasing winter around at the moment, there's no issues with him acclimatising," he said.
"He'll slot in with a bigger role this week and hopefully carry on the good form he showed on Sunday. He definitely showed then that he is a top-class player."