Desperate to regain some height, Carlton are pinning their hopes on the return of Matthew Kreuzer for Saturday night’s AFL clash with Richmond.
Kreuzer will be thoroughly scrutinised at training this week after being ruled out of the previous round due to a hip problem.
But coach Brett Ratten said the ruck/forward would not play unless he passed stringent fitness tests.
“There’s six games to go and we need to get him back out there,” Ratten said.
Carlton’s stock of talls was already diminished with Lachie Henderson and Andrew Walker also injured.
However, Ratten said Kreuzer was “more of a likely than an unlikely” chance to play in the MCG game.
“He will be assessed after training on how he’s pulled up,” Ratten said.
“We will assess him again on Thursday morning to make sure that the decision for him is the best for Matthew.
“We do have a lot of talls on our list – but they don’t play, so that’s a little bit of an issue.”
The Blues will have ruckman Robbie Warnock available after serving a VFL suspension, but Ratten said whether he was picked would depend on how well Kreuzer had recovered.
Forward Jarrad Waite is still struggling with a back injury but Ratten is optimistic he will at least be able to line up in the VFL this weekend.
“We hope so. He’s missed so much football that it’s something that we really spoke about – really making sure Jarrad was right to play,” Ratten said.
“For him to get another injury now or get a soft tissue would really cause his season to virtually be over.
“This week, he will have to get through training and that will be a real thing for us, whether we pick him at VFL level or not.”