ESSENDON captain Jobe Watson will have surgery to repair his left collarbone which he fractured in the opening quarter against Port Adelaide at Etihad Stadium.

He will miss four to six games.



It's expected he'll have a metal plate inserted in his shoulder to accelerate the healing and will hopefully return just before the finals.



Watson, last year's Brownlow Medallist, was second favourite in this year's medal at $9 behind Gold Coast's Gary Ablett going into game against the Power, but TAB Sportsbet expects him to blow out to $21.



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He injured his shoulder just 17 minutes into the game when he received a bump from Port's Justin Westhoff on the outer winger during a duel for the ball.



Watson left the field after a short discussion with a club medico and was subbed off a few minutes later when club doctor Bruce Reid took him into the rooms for a more detailed examination.



He sat at the back of the interchange bench with ice on his shoulder, but was in the rooms after the game as his teammates celebrated the victory.



Watson said after the game he expected to miss four games.







































"It looks like it's a pretty easy, pretty simple break, - and footy, you know, it's just a game so it doesn't matter,'' Watson said.



"I felt something, then I pushed down and I thought, it's all right, it's gone back in, because I'd never broken a bone before.



"Then 'Reidy' (Essendon doctor Bruce Reid) said, 'Nah, you're in trouble mate, I'm not letting you go back out'.



"The pain wasn't too bad. I'll miss four.''



Yesterday's blow only added to a season of high drama for the Bombers and their captain.



Watson has been central in investigations into Essendon players' use of drugs last year.



He said in an interview recently he believed he had been given anti-obesity drug AOD-9604 - which is banned for athletes - but the club has not conceded he or other players had broken anti-doping rules.



The AFL has stated it expects the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority probe to be completed next month _ before the finals.



Any player charged with a doping offence would be stood down by the AFL pending a tribunal hearing.



The only way a player would be allowed to continue on the field would be on the intervention of the AFL Commission.



Bomber coach James Hird said after the game that the plan was to operate on Watson first thing this morning and he wasn't sure how many games he'd miss.



"I am not sure how long it takes, but you would think it would be at least three or four weeks,'' Hird said.



"He is a huge loss for us and he was playing pretty well before he got hurt. He is our captain and spiritual leader and all those things that he brings to our game and he is a big loss.



"The positive tonight through that injury was that a lot of other players stood-up and took-up the slack from a leadership point of view.''