Fremantle’s celebrations of an eighth straight victory have been tempered after scans revealed captain Alex Pearce suffered a knee injury in the dying moments.

The heart and soul skipper copped the blow in the final play of the game, when his foot got trapped attempting to tackle Hawthorn’s Connor Macdonald, and he was in significant discomfort in the rooms post-game.

Coach Justin Longmuir said Pearce was uncomfortable coming from the ground.

“I think he got a knock. He’s a little bit unsure, so he’ll get it checked out,” Longmuir said.

Scans on Friday confirmed Pearce has suffered a low-grade medial collateral ligament injury, which will rule him out of at least their clash with Essendon at the MCG next Sunday.

“Pleasingly, scans have shown it’s not a significant injury,” Fremantle football manager Joe Brierty said.“Early signs are positive, and we will continue to reassess Alex’s functionality and provide further updates as they come to hand.”

It’s a bitter blow for the 30-year-old, who was in All-Australian form having battled lower leg injuries throughout his career.

“He looked really sore and he looked a bit cranky after the song, too,” Seven’s Ryan Daniels said.

“He has had a heap of injuries in his lower leg over the course of his career. He just gets sort of trapped underneath that tackle.”

Oscar McDonald is the most likely to replace Pearce, having covered for Brennan Cox at the start of the season, while young defender Hugh Davies and Josh Draper are also in the frame, with all three having a chance to push their case in the WAFL on Saturday.

Pearce missed the entire 2017 season after fracturing the same broken leg that had ended his season after eight games in 2016, while he also missed the 2020 season with a broken ankle.

He played just 10 games in 2021 due to a knee injury and missed eight games last year with bone stress in his lower leg.

Earlier this month, he was unequivocal in shutting down speculation he could return to Tasmania when they enter the league with his contract expiring at the end of 2027.

Pearce said his injury history was a factor in not signing longer term deals.

“When you get to 30 years old and you’ve missed more than half of your career with injuries, that isn’t something that footy clubs do too often. I’ve still got a year of my contract after this one. That’s a pretty good spot to be in,” he told The West Australian earlier this month.

“I’ve been a free agent for a long time. They’re looking for narratives on Tassie and everyone looks for stories. It’ll be out there. But I’ll keep leading and giving all of myself to the Freo Dockers. That is all that is important.”

However, it hasn’t stopped the captain from putting his body on the line on multiple occasions this season, most recently copping a massive hit from Matthew Kennedy to prevent a goal in their win over Western Bulldogs.

“That’s what I’m there to do,” Pearce told The Sunday Times post-game.

“It’s a really hard and combative game. There were plenty of moments where blokes needed to put their nose over it and we were able to do that, which you need to do to be able to win games of footy.”

The Dockers have a rare 10-day break leading into the Bombers clash, but then just a five-day turnaround until the Friday night home game against St Kilda on May 22.

Fellow Dockers defender Heath Chapman, who did a huge job to shut down Hawthorn’s Nick Watson after half-time, copped a $1500 fine for misconduct in the third quarter when he pushed the Hawk into the boundary fence.