TRENT Croad was discharged from Epworth Hospital last night, diagnosed with a dislocated, rather than a broken, left wrist.

While the prognosis was better than Hawthorn first imagined — the club's No. 1 defender was visibly in pain as he ran from the MCG when yesterday's game was only four minutes old — Croad is still likely to spend some time on the sidelines.

"This is good news, but how good I don't know," Hawks football manager Mark Evans said last night.

"I couldn't say to you what this means in terms of a length of time … I think we'd be calling this a TBC. He has a dislocation, which has now been put back in. The good news is that there's no break, but we're still not sure of the severity of this, so we'll need to check up on the injury during the week."

Croad was injured in a collision with Melbourne skipper David Neitz. He has damaged the same wrist in the past, but Evans said that injury was lower in his hand.

The likely loss to Hawthorn's defence makes the return of All-Australian backman Campbell Brown for the side's round-two clash with Fremantle more timely.

Both Brown and Luke Hodge missed their side's round-one clash yesterday on account of suspensions they incurred last year.