Darcy Moore played while sick on Saturday night, but was influential in delivering Collingwood a Preliminary Final berth.
Craig McRae revealed post-game Moore was touch and go for his side’s Semi Final, but the intercepting defender produced in spades when required.
“He’s been sick all week,” McRae said post-game in defending his star backman.
“I protect my players, but I thought he was pretty good tonight.
“The guy (has) been in bed for a couple of days pretty ill, I love what he does, and I’ll stand up for him.”
When questioned further about Moore, the Collingwood coach added there was some doubt about his fitness for Saturday’s game.
"There was some concern" in the Collingwood camp that a sick Darcy Moore could have missed the semi-final 😮 pic.twitter.com/NMnoQ8zzyT
— 7AFL (@7AFL) September 10, 2022
“I hate it went the doctor rings me (on) matchday, and he rang me (on) matchday,” McRae added.
“So there was some concern, a level of confidence was still there but there was some concern.”
McRae wouldn’t give anything away as to what the 26-year-old’s symptoms were, but Moore told Fox Footy post-game: “I’ve had the flu all week”.
Moore was also on the verge of losing his voice in interviews with Channel 7 and Fox Footy after the game.
The intercepting defender spent much of the night matched up on Griffin Logue before being moved to Rory Lobb in the final term.
He finished with 15 possessions (eight intercepts) and two marks and conceded just one goal during his time on Logue and Lobb.
Moore will now be fighting to get back to full fitness ahead of next week’s Preliminary Final against Sydney, with that clash scheduled for 4:45pm AEST next Saturday.
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