Adelaide ruckman Sam Jacobs is on track to face arguably his biggest test of the season against Fremantle giant Aaron Sandilands at Patersons Stadium on Sunday.

Jacobs was on the receiving end of some friendly fire in last week’s 32-point win over Gold Coast when the 26-year-old copped a knee to the hip from teammate Patrick Dangerfield.

The former Carlton ruckman played through the pain but was clearly limited in his output.

Crows coach Brenton Sanderson is confident Jacobs has recovered enough from the corked hip flexor injury to board the plane west on Saturday.

“He looks good, he got through the full session today; we did everything, some ruck work, controlled contact, and he didn’t look restricted,” said Sanderson on Friday.

“It was quite a deep cork which restricted him on match day, but he’s a pro, he’s done lots of recovery – he’s been down at the beach every night wading through the water and he’s been getting physio treatment every day.

“We’ll probably see how he pulls up tomorrow before we set off, but if he gets on the plane he’s certainly going to play.”

A fit and firing Jacobs is essential to the Crows this weekend as he goes head-to-head with the competition’s tallest player in Sandilands.

While most of the onus is on Jacobs to win his ruck duels with Sandilands, Sanderson highlighted the importance of the Crows midfield tracking hit-outs and winning first use of the ball at stoppages.

“He’s a unique ruckman, Sandilands, in that he’s 10cm taller than the next tallest ruckman he has ever played against,” Sanderson said.

“Sandilands is the No.1 hit-out player this year, which is every year, so we’ll have to be at our best at ground level.

“Sauce (Jacobs) will still win his fair share of his hit-outs, but we have to understand this will be a week where we will be sharking Sandilands’ hit-outs as well.”

Taylor Walker, who is fresh off a five-goal haul and man-of-the-match performance for the Crows in the victory over the Suns, was seen wearing a calf compression band at training this week.

Sanderson put to rest any fears that the key forward was in doubt for Sunday.

“He got through the whole session today and that (compression band) was just a precautionary one. I think he had a corky in the calf but that’s nothing out of the ordinary for most players, he’ll certainly play,” Sanderson said.