FOUR-TIME Hawthorn premiership defender Grant Birchall’s luckless 2017 campaign has continued, with confirmation of a medial ligament strain that will keep him out for up to a month.

On Sunday at the MCG, Birchall was only a few minutes into his first game since missing a month because of a fractured jaw when he landed awkwardly during a marking contest.

"He landed flat on his knee," Hawks elite performance manager Andrew Russell told the hawthornfc.com.au.

It wasn't a great weekend for the Hawks on the injury front, with news that midfielder Jonathan O’Rourke had suffered a significant hamstring injury in the VFL.

It was his third hamstring injury for the year and this time the Hawks are going to shut him down for an extended period, as they did with Cyril Rioli in 2014.

"Jono’s really unfortunate. He's probably going to spend eight-to-10 weeks on the sidelines to try and get that hamstring right," Russell said.

Boom recruit Jaeger O’Meara started his conditioning block on Tuesday and won’t be selected for the clash with the Brisbane Lions on Saturday nor any time soon as he continues to feel the effects of bone bruising in his knee.

"Jaeger ran really well and he moved well, but he’s a high work-rate player who needs to be able to run and cut and be really dynamic to play good footy," Russell said.

"We’ll wait until he can do that again and then we’ll put him out there."



Russell said that O’Meara felt great heading into the St Kilda game in round six, but started to feel soreness once again in the second half.

Defender Teia Miles, who debuted earlier this year, will resume running next week after a medial ligament strain and is considered about four weeks away from playing.