Carlton will know on Sunday whether they have suffered a devastating blow ahead of the AFL finals, with star ruckman Matthew Kreuzer injuring his foot.

Kreuzer was subbed off in the second term of Saturday night's 20-point loss to St Kilda at the MCG and rushed to hospital.

The win gave St Kilda a home elimination final against Sydney next Saturday night at Etihad Stadium.

The match was effectively a dead rubber for the Blues, who were locked in for the Sunday elimination final against arch-rivals Essendon.

But now they might go into the clash against the Bombers without Kreuzer, one of their most important players.

He suffered a mysterious "dead foot" during the warmup for Saturday night's match.

"His (left) foot went to sleep and he couldn't feel (it) ... they tried re-strapping," coach Brett Ratten said.

"It was a little bit through, which I really didn't know too much about, the warmup.

"Then he started playing and then he re-strapped again, his knee, just to see if there was anything ... and his ankle.

"Then we rushed him off to hospital to make enquiries and find out why, we don't know yet."

Ratten said there was no sign before Saturday night that Kreuzer had a problem with his foot.

"He didn't train (on Friday), just in sandshoes, he took it easy in the last session, had a few kicks and marks," Ratten said.

"He came here and nothing was there and the next minute, bang.

"So two minutes into the game, the doctor was saying 'we've got a few issues with 'Kreuz' and we battled on."

The Blues also lost key defender Michael Jamison (knee) and Andrew Carrazzo (neck) as late withdrawals for the Saints game.

"I hope they're the three things - they say they come in threes, so hopefully they're the three things that have gone (wrong) now," Ratten said of the injuries to Jamison, Carrazzo and Kreuzer.

"It will be good to set some of those senior boys back, (Bret) Thornton will be available as well."

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