CHRISTIAN Salem will miss Sunday’s clash against St Kilda at Etihad Stadium, due to a broken thumb.

Elite performance manager Dave Misson confirmed on Tuesday that Salem would be sidelined for round seven.

“He’s not sure how he did it, but it happened in the second quarter of the game,” he told Melbourne Media.

“He had a guard put on it at half-time and re-strapped it – we didn’t want it injected, because we felt that it was going to affect his ability to handle the ball.

“He had a scan yesterday (Monday) morning, which showed he had a fracture at the base of his thumb.

“He had an operation yesterday afternoon to stabilise that fracture, so he’s going to need to be reviewed post-op to see how the wound’s going.”

Misson was hopeful Salem would miss just the one match and be available for Melbourne’s round eight clash against Gold Coast Suns at the Gabba.

“We’re hoping it’s going to be a similar timeframe to Jordy Lewis and we’ll try and turn him around in a week,” he said.

“Being the thumb, it’s probably a little bit different to Jordy’s, but we’ll just see how he is later in the week.”

Salem has played six of his 52 AFL matches this season and has been in good form in recent weeks.