Ahead of their clash with the Demons, Hawthorn have had to replace the injury plagued Jaeger O'Meara with Will Langford.
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O'Meara has succumbed to knee soreness with the 23-year-old no stranger to knee injuries having had his promising career curtailed somewhat by them over the past two years.
The former Gold Coast player picked up a knock to the knee in Round 2 and has struggled to find his feet since.
"Jaeger was feeling great going into last week’s clash but unfortunately, despite us giving him every opportunity to get up for today’s match, he still has some soreness around his knee,” Hawthorn's General Manager of football operations Jason Burt told the club website.
"Fortunately, the irritation is still in relation to the knock he received in Round 2 and separate from the problems Jaeger has faced in the past.
"We have said all along, given his history, we will take a cautious approach.
"We are hopeful the soreness will settle relatively quickly and then it will be about ensuring that Jaeger has a solid block of conditioning before he comes back into the side.
"Both Jaeger and the club want to ensure that he is feeling 100 per cent for a period of time before he returns to senior football."
The NAB AFL Rising Star of 2013 missed the entire 2015 and 2016 seasons through injury before joining Hawthorn in the off-season.
