Collingwood defender Matt Scharenberg has been left shattered by the expectation scans on Sunday will confirm he needs a third knee reconstruction.

The Magpies were preparing themselves for the worst on Saturday night after a simple change of direction floored the 22-year-old in the final term.

While Richmond's Jack Higgins celebrated what could win goal of the year and the surrounding Collingwood players were distracted by their appeal to the goal umpire, Scharenberg had collapsed to the ground about 30m out from goal.

He'd innocuously planted his foot and tried to take off again in the opposite direction in pursuit of Dustin Martin as the ball flew over their heads. 

He was able to hobble off, but his face told the story – and the reaction of medical staff who returned the bench after examining him in the rooms all but confirmed it.   

"He's shattered. He's a young bloke who loves his footy and he's been through his fair share with his feet and then his ACLs," Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley said afterwards.

"In these last 12 months, he's been able to play quite a bit of footy and shown more than glimpses of the ability we know he has.

"There's not a lot of light at the end of the tunnel right now for him, he's shattered and not in a great spot."

The South Australian's parents were at the ground for Saturday's blockbuster at the MCG, which the Tigers won by 28 points after a horrid injury toll that also claimed Jeremy Howe and left the Pies undermanned in defence. 

Howe was knocked out after Darcy Moore's knee collected him in the forehead late in the first quarter and didn't return with his vision affected to the point where he couldn't read the scoreboard.

He watched the rest of the game from the bench and will face tests this week, as will Brody Mihocek, who injured his ankle in the second quarter but played out the game.

VIDEO: Friendly fire dazes Howe. Watch the incident which ended the high flyer's afternoon.

Scharenberg is now staring down the barrel of his third reconstruction since joining Collingwood with pick No.6 in the 2013 NAB AFL Draft. He tore his left ACL in August 2014 and then did his right in a training incident in November 2015. 

Buckley wryly replied, "they mostly are", when questioned about how innocuous the incident appeared to be.

However, he backed his players – who have been rocked in recent weeks by the loss of Adam Treloar (hamstrings), Ben Reid (knees), Lynden Dunn (knee) and Jordan De Goey (leg) – to keep bouncing back from harsh injury blows to their teammates.

"There's clearly things that challenge your psyche, but you can throw whatever you like at our group – they'll find a way to respond positively, to stand up, to find a reason to continue to fight," he said.

"That was there and evident today so we haven't lost anything in that regard.

"We had belief before anyone else understood what it was, I suppose, but you need to demonstrate it and we've continued to demonstrate it and that's part of us now, that's not something we're aspiring to – it is who we are.

"The challenges will keep coming for us and you've got to keep rising to that challenge.

"We're looking forward to what's to come."

With Dunn, Scharenberg and swingman Reid currently out of the side, the need for experience within their backline has become even more dire.

Buckley conceded the possible return of veteran Tyson Goldsack, who had a knee reconstruction in March but is in line for a remarkable late-season comeback, would be a significant bonus.

"There's still a lot of ifs that we really can't be sure of, that we can't be clear about," he said.

"There's a fair few boys that aren't in the side at the moment that continue to fight for their opportunity to continue and 'Goldy' is one of those.

"It's still something we're being pretty positive about and we're looking at the opportunity and 'Goldy' in particular is really bullish, he's training really well, but we'll continue to make prudent decisions based on the information we've got.

"There's always some risk associated with any return to play but we'll trust our docs and the work we're seeing 'Goldy' do and if he becomes another one of the panel that fights the fight for us, we'd enjoy that."



Matthew Scharenberg is helped from the ground in the third quarter. Image: AFL Photos.