The Brisbane Lions' difficult road to defending their premiership could be set to get even harder, with the club deeply concerned about the injury status of their co-captain Lachie Neale.
The Lions squandered a chance at a home preliminary final on Friday night, as they were no match for the Cats who won convincingly in the end by 38 points.
A bad night got worse for the Lions, as their two-time Brownlow medallist was forced to exit early in the final quarter, clearly feeling a great deal of pain in his right calf as he limped off the ground.
"Lachie, it looks like he's done a calf," Fagan admitted post-game."
MORE: AFL Qualifying Final Brisbane player ratings: Lachie Neale's dominant night done early with injury
"So that's not a good thing. He's a pretty tough sort of guy, he can usually play through those, but he couldn't. So I'm not expecting great news there.
"I don't know the severity cause you need to get a scan to find that out but... I'd suspect it's something significant."
As Fagan says, scans over the coming days will reveal the severity of the injury, but Fox Footy's Jon Ralph did report that Brisbane is confident that Neale's season is done.
"Brisbane thinks Lachie Neale’s season is over with his calf issue," Ralph posted on X.
It would be a shattering way for the Lions' co-captain's season to end, who on Friday night was already working his way back from a quad injury that necessitated a three-game absence at the end of the home-and-away season.
Should their skipper's season be over, the Lions will still be confident in their chances at winning without him, as they went 2-1 when he was sidelined over the past few weeks.
Brisbane will host a semi-final next Saturday night, against either Fremantle or Gold Coast, depending on who wins tomorrow night's qualifying final.