James Aish may have played his last game for the Brisbane Lions after the youngster was ruled out for the remainder of the season due to a finger injury.
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Aish ruptured a tendon in a finger on his left hand against North Melbourne on Saturday night and underwent surgery on Monday night. He will need 12 weeks to fully recover.
The teenager's future has been the subject of intense speculation this year and it is widely expected he will walk out on the Lions just two years after being taken at pick No.7 in the national draft.
If that were to occur it would continue a disastrous trend for Brisbane who have lost other highly rated youngsters Elliot Yeo (West Coast), Jared Polec (Port Adelaide), Sam Docherty (Carlton) and Billy Longer (St Kilda) in recent years.
After missing only one game in his debut season and impressing with an average of 18 disposals per match, the constant speculation surrounding Aish appeared to place the 19-year-old on the outer at the Lions in 2015 and his form also took a dip.
He was dropped twice this year, was subbed out of the game in round four against West Coast and was used as the starting sub in round 16 against Melbourne.
The situation reached a flashpoint in May when the club demanded a meeting with Aish and his manager Liam Pickering amid reports Carlton had flown to Queensland to speak to the young Lion.
When asked about whether the rumoured Carlton-Aish meeting took place, Brisbane CEO Greg Swann told The Footy Show on May 10: "We don't know - we asked.
"Liam said no, James himself said no, every other journalist in Australia [says] yes.
"So we just take it on face value that they didn't.
"We're accepting of what they [Aish and Pickering] said.
"Everybody else is telling us a different story, but at this stage we can only go on what they've said to us.
"That's probably the issue - just to clarify what happened.
"We have no reason to believe they're not telling us the truth, but everyone else is trying to tell a different story."
A month earlier, Swann was all but resigned to the fact that Aish would be playing for a different team in 2016.
"There's no real reason for him not to sign I don't think. He likes being in Brisbane, he likes the boys, he has been drafted with a group of players that have all committed," Swann told Triple M on April 19.
"So you don't have to be a rocket scientist to work it out. We're not overly confident at this stage.
"Our view is if he doesn't want to leave, then re-sign and let's get on with it."
In all, Aish only managed 11 games this season although a jaw injury also conspired against him in the middle of the year.
Aish has at stages been linked to a move back to his native South Australia with one of the two Adelaide clubs, but Collingwood are also believed to be interested in his services.
