Waters suffered a fracture in his right leg in Gisborne’s opening match of the season against South Bendigo on April 13.

The injury was initially expected to keep Waters out for eight to 10 weeks, but one of the BFL’s most dominant big men is now preparing for the possibility that it could be season over.

“At this stage, I probably won’t be back this year, which is obviously shattering,” Waters said yesterday.

“But I’ll definitely be having a crack at trying to get back... a lot will depend on when I go back to the surgeon in a few weeks and how the leg is looking then.

“Once it happened it was going to be a long process and depend a lot on how the bone healed.

“It was going to be at least eight weeks for the bone to heal and then getting back to full running after that.

“But if I need to have surgery on it, it’s definitely going to be the year. I’ll be hoping for the best.”

While his football is on hold following the injury, so to is Waters’ work as a plumber.

“The leg is in a moon boot and I can’t put any weight on it, so I haven’t been working either,” Waters said.

“Hopefully, once the moon boot is off in a couple of weeks, I’ll be able to go back to work on light duties.”

Adding to Waters’ frustration with the injury is that he will miss the BFL’s inter-league game against Ballarat on May 25.

“I love playing representative footy, so it’s tough to miss out,” Waters said.

“But it will give someone else a go and hopefully, the boys get it done next week.”

Meanwhile, at Golden Square, midfielder Jack Geary says he’s unsure of the extent of an elbow injury suffered against South Bendigo last weekend.

“I got a minor hyper-extension of the elbow, but I’m not sure what the go is with it yet,” said Geary, who lost just his second game in 51 senior matches for the Bulldogs last Saturday.

“It’s not very sore and I’ve been able to work all week (landscaping), but it could be a bit of a problem down the track, so I’ll know more when I get it checked out.”

At South Bendigo, the Bloods are also unsure how serious the jaw injury suffered by onballer Justin Wilson is.

Wilson sustained the jaw injury in a friendly-fire collision with Justin Maddern late in the third quarter of the clash with Golden Square, but returned to the field.

“He was meant to get an X-ray over the last couple of days, but still hasn’t, so we’re not sure,” Bloods coach Rick Coburn said.

“I’d be surprised if it was a full-on break of the jaw because he was moving it after the game.

“There could be a little crack in it, which I’d say would probably keep him out of this week and inter-league.”

In other injury news at South Bendigo, the Bloods still have Marcus Varley and Rory Alexander out with shoulder injuries. Alexander is a chance of playing for the Bloods after the inter-league bye, while Varley could still be up to a month away from resuming.

Kelvin Williams, who has impressed off half-back, should be back from his hamstring injury against Castlemaine on June 1.

Kangaroo Flat isn’t ruling out the prospect of captain Tyson Mihocek returning from a dislocated shoulder this Saturday against Sandhurst.

Mihocek suffered the shoulder injury against Eaglehawk on Anzac Day. If he doesn’t play this week, Mihocek will get an extra 21 days to recover as the Roos’ next senior game after the Dragons is against Strathfieldsaye on June 8.

The Roos are hopeful ruckman Nick Lang, who had a hip operation during the pre-season, will be right to start his season within the next month.