Jamie Elliott was stretchered off in visible pain late in Collingwood’s game against West Coast after landing awkwardly on his left knee in a marking contest inside 50. The 33-year-old, who had already sparked the Magpies with two goals in a minute earlier in the third quarter, faced a worrying finish to a night that had briefly looked like one of his best.
Elliott’s knee injury came after he helped swing momentum Collingwood’s way in Scott Pendlebury’s record-breaking game, when his quick-fire goals lifted the Magpies at a crucial point. By the time he was taken from the field, the tone of the match had changed again, with Collingwood also having lost Darcy Moore at half-time to a hamstring injury suffered in a ruck contest and then Will Hayes to a shoulder problem earlier in the fourth term.
The injury matters because Elliott has been central to Collingwood’s late-game surges this season, and his output has remained one of the club’s most reliable weapons when matches tighten. He kicked 60 goals in a career-best 2025 and is contracted for next season, but any ACL damage would almost certainly push a return into the second half of next year, leaving the Magpies staring at a serious hole in attack if the diagnosis proves the worst.
That is the tension Collingwood must now live with: the club knows Elliott can change a game in a minute, but it also knows how fragile the rest of the season can become when one of its most decisive forwards goes down in such obvious pain. The next step is the medical verdict, and for Collingwood that will determine whether this was a scare or the kind of injury that can reshape a season before the real stakes even begin.
