‘Horrible’ scenes as retiring AFL champion Luke Breust goes down with gruesome injury in VFL

Hawthorn veteran Luke Breust has been helped off the field after suffering a serious injury in Box Hill’s loss to Footscray in their VFL preliminary final on Saturday.

Breust, who announced this season will be his last, knee got caught under an opponent while he was attempting to lay a tackle.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Luke Breust suffers gruesome injury.

The much-loved forward immediately winced in pain as medical staff rushed onto the field to help.

He was eventually helped off in the hands of trainers, but it will almost certainly be his last act on a footy field.

Breust had earlier kicked a goal from his four disposals.

Channel 7 commentator Jason Bennett said: “The right knee has caved in. That’s pretty gruesome. We won’t need to see that again after that, we can see it’s a pretty serious right knee issue.”

Boundary commentator Andrew McCormack said it was a horrible situation.

“Horrible scenes at Whitten Oval as Luke Breust goes down with a right knee injury. Twisted violently in a tackle,” he tweeted.

“Being helped off ground by trainers. Likely the last time we see the 34-year-old leave the field. Future Hall of Famer. Cruel way to go.”

The gruesome injury capped a nightmare day for the Hawks, who were soundly beaten by 34 points.

Footscray will now face Southport in next week’s VFL grand final.

Breust played eight senior games this year, the last of which was the final-round clash against Brisbane when he was the starting substitute.

But he was dropped for the elimination final and left out again for Friday night’s semi-final.

Plucked from obscurity in the 2009 rookie draft, Breust went on to play 308 AFL games.

Quickly cementing his spot in the forward line, Breust instantly became a fan favourite with his class around goal a highlight.

Breust was a key member of Hawthorn’s three-peat, playing in all three premierships, as well as earning All-Australian honours in 2014 and 2018.

He has kicked over 40 goals in eight separate seasons for an overall tally of 552, which is the seventh most in club history.

He is also ranked third at the club for total games, trailing only Michael Tuck (426 games) and Leigh Matthews (332).

Meanwhile, the Hawks have their own injury concerns ahead of next Friday’s preliminary final against Geelong.

Jack Ginnivan struggled with a minor hamstring issue against the Crows, but is expected to train and play next week.