The ongoing absence of Western Bulldogs key forward Jamarra Ugle-Hagan is about to be felt more than ever after the likely ACL injury to superstar goalkicker Sam Darcy.

At the age of just 21, Darcy has emerged as not only one of the AFL’s best forwards in the early stages of 2025, but one of the game’s outright best players.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Sam Darcy goes down with likely ACL injury.

If scans on Monday confirm the Bulldogs’ suspicions that Darcy has ruptured his ACL, he will leave an All-Australian sized hole in their forward line.

It’s a hole that a fit and firing Ugle-Hagan would be more than capable of filling, were he not on “flexible” leave from the club to deal with “complex” personal issues.

The former No.1 draft pick has only recently been starting to reappear sparingly at Bulldogs training, but has not been seen in the field of play at AFL or VFL level at all this year, and it is unclear when or whether he will return to action.

Until Sunday night though, Darcy had led the charge in one of the game’s most exciting forward lines, even without Ugle-Hagan.

Now though, his services have never been more required.

“Gee, Jamarra Ugle-Hagan could be pretty handy right about now for the Dogs,” Nick Riewoldt said shortly after Darcy went down on Sunday night.

He later added: “It just creates a lot of interest, probably more than there already had been, around the Ugle-Hagan dynamic.

“Does Darcy’s absence provide them with the opportunity to get some games into him and potentially fatten him up (in value) for a trade? Or help him fall back in love with footy and the club?”

Hamish McLachlan said: “So, here’s the reality; the Dogs are going to have a huge win, and a massive loss, all in the same night.”

Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge said last week Ugle-Hagan’s playing future is in the hands of the AFL, and on Sunday night he insisted Darcy’s injury hadn’t raised the chances of a recall for the former No.1 draft pick.

“That’s obviously not going to happen in the immediate term so it’s probably not worth discussing at the moment,” Beveridge said in his post-match press conference.

“As far as any replacements go, we really can’t consider ‘Marra.”

Beveridge instead said Buku Khamis, James O’Donnell and Rory Lobb could come into calculations as forwards while they could replace Darcy with a small.

The coach’s immediate decision to rule out Ugle-Hagan comes after prominent past players led calls last week for the Bulldogs to stand down Ugle-Hagan.

New vision of the 23-year-old partying emerged on social media.

“I try not to think about the social media side of things too much,” Beveridge said on Thursday.

“At the moment the decision-making in regards to Marra’s future and what that entails is significantly in the AFL’s hands.

“We’re waiting on them to do certain things and we’re continually interacting with them and working through it to work out what’s best for Marra.”

Ugle-Hagan remains on what the Bulldogs termed a “flexible” training arrangement and is not a regular at the club.

“My focus is absolutely, totally on the group that’s here,” Beveridge said.

“Sometimes he’s here, sometimes he’s not. If he is and he isn’t, it’s not worth talking about.

“If he is and he joins in, we carry on. But because he’s not currently available for selection, it’s not at the forefront of my mind.

“It’s just making sure that the group who are playing are ready to go.”

Riewoldt was among Ugle-Hagan’s most vocal critics this week and called for clubs to be better protected

“There can be real reasons, legitimate reasons, but when you’re behaving the way that Jamarra is, you forfeit all rights,” Riewoldt said on Channel 7 during the week.

“This is the issue: there is no mechanism for clubs to be protected.

“Not just the clubs but the players you’re teammates with that are actually fronting up day after day doing the work for the cause, and you’ve got a teammate that is not buying in and is still taking five or six, seven per cent of the salary cap with no recourse from the football clubs.”

- With AAP