FREMANTLE's win over Carlton could be bittersweet due to significant injuries to Matthew Pavlich and Tendai Mzungu.

 

The Dockers were reduced to a two-man bench for almost the entire second half of their nailbiting five-point win over the Blues at Patersons Stadium on Thursday night.

 

Pavlich was subbed out of the game after being concussed in an incident during the second quarter. 

 

The skipper appeared to receive an accidental elbow to the head from Carlton’s Nick Graham while trying to lay a tackle.

 

Pavlich lay on the ground for about a minute after the incident and was immediately subbed out of the game for 20 minutes pending a medical check.

 

At half-time, Fremantle subbed him out of the game permanently.

 

Mzungu suffered a low-grade left hamstring strain in the first half. He had his hamstring heavily bandaged and sat on an exercise bike on the interchange bench for the entire third term.

 

He played for less than two minutes in the last quarter but was clearly hampered while on the ground.

 

"(Mzungu has) a really low-grade strained hamstring," Ross Lyon said after the game. 

"We put him on at the end to pinch a minute breather for one of our forwards that had been on for a long time. So that's why we did that. He'll be fine.

 

"Hopefully Matthew will come up but concussions are serious, obviously, so his health is paramount."

 

The coach thought it was a huge effort by his team to come from behind given they were two men down for the whole second half.

 

"We were down to 20 men on the biggest ground in Australia against a team that was running well and coming off the bye," Lyon said.

 

"So it there was a really good effort to dig in."

 

The Dockers have nine days before they face Geelong at Simonds Stadium in a crucial round 20 clash that will almost certainly shape the top four.

 

Lyon believes the extra break may help the skipper but Mzungu may need longer.

 

"I think it clearly helps Matthew, but it won't help Tendai," Lyon said.

 

"It's always good to have a bit longer to prepare in theory. It's a good opportunity for us to gather ourselves and train hard."