WEST COAST defender Brad Sheppard could miss the rest of the season after suffering what looked to be a “very severe” hamstring in Saturday’s 16-point qualifying final win over Collingwood at Optus Stadium.

The Eagles defender was pushed off balance late in the first quarter by opponent Jordan De Goey after hacking the ball out of mid-air.

Sheppard immediately clutched high up on his left hamstring in a worrying sign, before vision showed him screaming in agony on the interchange bench.

The 27-year-old will have scans today to determine the extent of his injury.

Speaking on AFL Game Day, Senior Melbourne AFLW physio Kathleen Pettyfor said the initial prognosis didn’t look good.

“That looks like a tendon and I hope he proves me wrong – I hope he comes back and he’s fine – but I think he looks almost like he could be a surgical candidate,” Pettyfor said.

“It’s that mechanism of high-speed running and he got pushed forward, I think the Telstra tracker had them clocked at running 33 to 34 kilometres an hour, that’s pretty quick.

“This is a very severe hamstring and quite similar to the (Adam) Treloar hamstrings.

“Nothing looked good about it at all.”

Treloar missed nine games with hamstring tendon injuries to both legs and at times looked proppy in his return against West Coast.

Typically durable, Sheppard will break a run of 95 consecutive games played – the fourth-longest current streak in the AFL equal to Collingwood’s Jack Crisp and behind Geelong’s Zach Thuohy (138), Port Adelaide’s Justin Westhoff (123) and St Kilda’s Jack Newnes (110).

His injury could open the door for omitted veteran Will Schofield to receive a finals lifeline.

Speaking after the game, Simpson described dropping Schofield as “the hardest thing I’ve done as coach” and said his team would find a way to cover Sheppard’s absence.

West Coast has a week off before hosting the winner of Hawthorn’s knockout clash with Melbourne.