Brisbane ruckman Jamie Charman's wretched run with injuries continued when he was ruled out for at least a month with a cracked bone in his leg.

Charman suffered the injury in the early stages of last week's shock loss to Hawthorn and only found out that he had actually cracked a bone.

The towering 22-year-old initially thought it was just a cork but scans taken after he was scratched from the embarrassing 73-point loss to Hawthorn revealed the full extent of the damage.

Lions coach Leigh Matthews said Charman is expected to be sidelined for a month despite playing with the injury against the Hawks.

"He's got a little crack in one of the bones on his leg," Matthews said.

"It's not a major weight bearer but he won't be able to run around on it for a few weeks so he'll be out for a month or so.

"He obviously got a bad knock and I think he played with it because the knock he got on his sore calf was early in the game last week.

"When they did the x-ray the discovered a fracture there."

It is yet another setback to the promising ruckman's career after a knee injury prematurely ended his season in 2004 and a shoulder problem hampered preparations for this year.

Despite the loss of Charman, Brisbane will be boosted in the lead-up to Saturday's vital clash against Essendon by the timely return of star forward Jonathan Brown from suspension.

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