West Coast defender Jeremy McGovern set to miss clash against Brisbane with rib, lung injuries

West Coast’s disastrous few weeks is set to intensify with star defender Jeremy McGovern likely to miss their clash against a rampaging Brisbane at Optus Stadium on Sunday.

McGovern was hospitalised with a fractured rib and punctured lung after the Eagles’ disappointing 54-point loss to Melbourne at the MCG on Sunday.

The 32-year-old didn’t fly back with the team later that night and was discharged on Monday, all but dashing his hopes of taking on the Lions.

It comes amid a remarkable season from the 188-game veteran who was in contention for a remarkable fifth All-Australian blazer and first since 2019.

McGovern’s absence is likely to mean a recall for 200cm defender Harry Edwards as the Eagles try to curtail the Lions’ dynamic forward duo of Eric Hipwood (26 goals) and Joe Daniher (32 goals).

Edwards will come in fresh, having not played at any level over the weekend after missing West Coast’s WAFL loss to Peel Thunder with illness.

Eagles coach Adam Simpson conceded McGovern was almost certain to miss the game against the Lions.

“I don’t think it (the rib) is broken; it might be just a fracture but jeez he must have done that three or four times in the past couple of years and a bit of a punctured lung as well,” Simpson told 7NEWS.

“He’s pretty sore at the moment, but it’s not something he hasn’t deal with before. He had a collapsed lung a few years ago. He’s pretty brave, isn’t he?

“He’s in doubt, more unlikely than likely.”

Brisbane will head west to take on the Eagles for at Optus Stadium for the first time ever, having not played them in Perth since they lost by 68 points at Subiaco Oval in 2017.

The Lions have a 3-3 record at Optus Stadium but all of those games are against Fremantle, the last of which was a 23-point loss in round one.

“They’re a good side. I mean, Melbourne at the MCG are a good side as well and these teams that are fighting for a final eight spot you can tell how desperate they are,” Simpson said.

“Our goal is to be as desperate to win and to play well in front of our fans. We were disappointing last time we played at home and we’d love to put a better effort up this week regardless of who we play.”

Simpson conceded after the loss to the Demons they’d be looking to make changes to the side and doubled down when asked about the moves.

It comes after they were criticised for their lack of changes after the 61-point loss to Hawthorn the previous week.

“We were disappointing against Hawthorn, and it was probably the first time we had the side that we had in that week, so we wanted to see a little bit more of that combination,” Simpson said.

“We didn’t get it done, there’s some areas we’d like to look at, there’s some players we’d like to look at in the next seven weeks and there’s still plenty of time to expose some of our younger players.

“We’ve got to reward form and performance … we’ll be as honest as we can with the integrity of match committee and we’ll make some calls later in the week.”