Essendon will go into next week's AFL clash with Hawthorn weakened by the loss of key defender Tayte Pears, who will miss up to two months with a broken arm.

Pears played throughout Sunday's loss to Collingwood with the fracture, Bombers football manager Paul Hamilton confirmed, and will be sidelined for at least six rounds.

Hamilton said a surgeon would determine this week whether the 19-year-old would require a plate in his arm.

"It's a disappointing result for Tayte. He's had a great start to the year and on top of the result yesterday, it's disappointing for the club," Hamilton said.

"He will be a big loss, without any doubt ... it is one of those disappointing collision injuries that can happen."

Hawthorn's on-field problems were compounded on Sunday when they lost their last specialist ruckman, Brent Renouf, to illness even before going on to lose to North Melbourne by 12 points at Aurora Stadium in Launceston.

However, midfielder Brad Sewell was confident he would be back for the Bombers clash at the MCG on Saturday night.

"Obviously it wasn't a great start to the game," Sewell said.

"His last month has been really, really good - crucial for us - and having him go down late just before we went out wasn't ideal."

The Hawks were forced to play forward Jared Roughead in the ruck but said they could have an edge with Renouf back leaving Roughead free to join Lance Franklin in attack.

"I just found out this morning that (Pears) had hurt himself," Sewell said. "He'll be a pretty big loss for them. He's a talent and is pretty crucial for them.

"I'm sure they've got players sitting there waiting to come in and play that role but that may give us the option to play some of those bigger guys up forward again," he said.

Sewell said he had "no doubt" Renouf would play next weekend.

While both teams are resting in the bottom five on the AFL ladder, Sewell said the Hawks would be inspired by the traditional rivalry between the two teams.

"You want to play in these big games and you know you're going to get a great crowd, and it's going to be a passionate crowd on both sides.

"I'm sure there will be plenty of feeling in the game," he said.

Sewell said that with injuries pre-season and a tough draw leaving the Hawks with just one win so far, every game from now on was vital to its finals ambitions.

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