GUTSY midfielder Steven Salopek says the Power will need to lift, not only physically, but mentally to cover the loss of injured star Chad Cornes.

Cornes underwent surgery on his broken finger on Sunday and is expected to miss three to four weeks. The dual All-Australian was in good spirits at Alberton on Monday morning, just hours after being discharged from hospital.

The Power vice-captain is widely considered to be the barometer of the Port Adelaide side, and Salopek said it would take a team effort to compensate for the premiership star’s usual on-field presence.

“Before the game, Chad is one guy who really gets the group up, and we know we need to take more leadership responsibility in his absence,” Salopek said.

“We’ll need to rev the group up ourselves and, obviously, it puts more pressure on the rest of the group to do that. You see Chad before a game and he’s sort of our mental leader who gets the group up, pumped and ready to go.

“Now, the pressure is on all of us to lift the group.”

Emerging defender Paul Stewart is the early favourite to replace Cornes after racking up 35 possessions, 10 marks and two goals in a best on ground display for Woodville-West Torrens.

Nathan Krakouer, who was a late withdrawal from the side last week, is also in the running to return having overcome leg soreness.

“We hold Chad in high regard, but we’ve got other players on our list who can do a similar type of role,” Salopek said.

“He’s obviously one of the superstar players of the AFL, but we’ve got belief in our players and whoever comes in this week, we’ll have trust in them to do their role.”

The Power, having recovered from a slow start, are now just one game and percentage outside the top eight and will take on the undermanned Essendon at the Telstra Dome on Sunday.

“We know how important this week is before the break, and we’re looking forward to going over to Melbourne,” Salopek said.

“The Telstra Dome is a great place to play and Essendon are a very proud club, so they’ll give it their best shot and we’ll need to be on our game to win.

“It has been a long four or five weeks, but we’ve stuck to our guns and believed in our game. We knew all along that we’d been doing most things right, but those little lapses had really hurt us.

“Stringing four quarters together on the weekend was good for our confidence, and we’ll take that into next week.”