Grima suffered a high grade medial strain when team-mate Jack Ziebell fell across his leg in the opening half against the Tigers on Friday night and is expected to spend four to six weeks on the sidelines.
“I suppose the positive we can take out of it is that it wasn’t an ACL,” Swallow said on Bigpond Sport’s AFL Central.
“Hopefully if all goes well in his rehab he can still play round one and if not, in the early part of the year.
“It’s disappointing for him. He obviously had an injury interrupted 2011. He had a really big pre-season and was looking really good.”
One of the biggest talking points of this week has been Reece Conca being able to serve a three-week suspension for rough conduct during the NAB Cup.
“It’s probably a bit of a strange one. We lost Drew Petrie to suspension during the first round (of the NAB Cup) last year, and we lost him for the first week or two. If that’s the way it is, we’ll just have to put up with it and deal with it,” Swallow added.
The recently appointed captain says he didn’t see the incident which left Leigh Adams temporarily motionless on the Etihad Stadium surface.
“I’ve only seen replays, but anytime you are behind the play you’ve got to be careful. Nowadays players are aware that if you get hit high and if someone comes off worse for wear, you are going to get a couple of weeks.
“Everyone knows now that you don’t want to hit anyone above the neck region, that’s sacrosanct and the AFL has made it pretty clear, so if you do that and especially off the ball, you’ve got to serve the consequences.”
