Dale Morris will not require surgery for a fracture to his jawbone following scans taken of the Bulldogs veteran defender on Monday

Ahead of the Bulldogs’ Saturday twilight match against the Gold Coast Suns, Morris along with vice-captain Jordan Roughead have received encouraging news after both suffered injuries in Saturday’s 11-point win over the Blues.

Roughead will be closely monitored during the week with an eye to making the trip north after being substituted out of Saturday’s win with back spasms at half time.

“Jordan had a jarring incident landing from a jump, it created some quite significant back spasm,” Bulldogs General Manager of Football Graham Lowe said.

“We worked with him to try and free him up, but at half time we decided the right decision was to sub him out of the game.”

“He’s come in well this week, our plan is to monitor him, prepare him from a training perspective, and give him every opportunity to play.”

Morris will be closely monitored this week on the training track, after initial fears the prognosis may be worse.

The veteran defender is just two games shy of his 200 match milestone.

“What we’ve discovered since is that he has a slight fracture to his jaw bone,” Lowe said.

“On a positive note, there’s no surgical intervention required, but we’re certainly going to monitor and assess how he travels during the week.”

The news is not as good for Toby McLean, with scans revealing he will require surgery to repair damage to the AC joint in his left shoulder.

McLean injured his shoulder in tackle in the closing minutes of the match, after being tackled by Carlton’s Dylan Buckley, and is expected to spend at least the next six weeks on the sideline.

Also set for short stints on the sidelines are midfield/forwards Mitch Honeychurch and Nathan Hrovat.

Honeychurch is expected to spend the next two weeks out of action, after heavy contact to his lower back during the course Saturday’s match with the Blues, which caused bruising and subsequent muscles spasms.

Meanwhile, midfielder Nathan Hrovat suffered a minor hamstring injury in Saturday afternoon’s 103-point VFL win over the Northern Blues, and is expected to spend one to two weeks on the sidelines recovering.