Carlton's frustrating 12-point loss to Collingwood was made worse by the sight of a distressed Byrne, 21, being carted off in the final quarter after hurting his knee following a bump from Magpie Travis Varcoe.

The Blues confirmed on Sunday night that Byrne's season was over due to a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

Teammate Zach Tuohy had earlier feared the worst, saying it was a hefty blow for his fellow backman, who had emerged this year after missing much of 2015 with a hamstring injury.

"He was pretty upset as you can imagine after the game," Tuohy told Channel Nine on Sunday.

"It's really disappointing."

But Tuohy backed Byrne to return strongly in 2017. "He's still really young, so it's not like it's the end of the road for him.

"Having seen where he's come from, I've seen how hard he's worked. I know how much he wants to have a long career in the AFL. He's a really driven person. He was really upset by it, but he'll be back next year and go on to be a really good player for a long time for this club."

A silver lining from the scrappy encounter was the first-up showing of third-generation Blue Silvagni. While the teenager went goalless, his 15 disposals and six marks included a handful of scoring opportunities.

Carlton coach Brendon Bolton described Silvagni's debut as "solid" but would not speculate on whether the 191-centimetre forward would retain his place for the Blues' meeting with Adelaide next Sunday.

While stressing that selection was a matter for Carlton's coaching panel, Wright suggested that Silvagni would get the nod to face the Crows.

"I suppose that's the coach's call. It's a tough one. I would have thought he did enough to earn a spot but it's one of those things. The coaches make the call on that and Bolts has made it pretty clear no one's going to be given a game," Wright said.

"He's going to have to keep playing well, and I'm sure he will."

Wright said he liked what he saw from the youngster.

"I thought he contributed. It was good for him to come in and just play his role. Obviously with the Silvagni name there's going to be a lot of expectations but we're just looking at him to play his role.

"He's a really level-headed kid, he speaks well and he's a got a great work ethic. I have no doubt he'll be around for a long time at the Carlton footy club."

Wright concurred with Bolton's assessment that poor ball use heading inside 50 had hurt Carlton against the Pies.

"We butchered it a little bit by foot. That was probably the difference in the end," Wright said.

"We've got some good marking forwards but we're not putting it to advantage. It's hard sitting it on their head all day so we'll look to get better at that.

"Their pressure was pretty good. They were able to do to us what we wanted to do to them."

Blue Dale Thomas is likely to face scrutiny from the match review panel after a high bump on Magpie James Aish.