Collingwood face more shuffling of their injury-riddled playing pack, with defender Nathan Brown in doubt for the Anzac Day AFL clash with Essendon.

Magpies coach Nathan Buckley admitted Brown would be touch and go for Thursday’s MCG match after injuring his groin in Collingwood’s 34-point defeat of Richmond on Saturday.

Collingwood are already without key midfielders Dayne Beams and Luke Ball and skipper Nick Maxwell through injury, while ruckman Darren Jolly has missed the Magpies’ past two matches with a rib problem.

After Collingwood’s dispatch of Richmond, the home-and-away season’s biggest match looms large.

And so do the injuries which have plagued the Pies, who have done exceptionally well to be 3-1 after four matches.

“We feel we’re very fortunate – we’ve got 24 hours more than we did last year,” Buckley said with gallows humour going into this year’s five-day turnaround until Anzac Day.

“Essendon (who also played Saturday) will obviously be the same. We’ll have a look at how the dust settles from today’s game.

“Browny was a bit sore through the game and wasn’t able to finish it off, so clearly he’s in some doubt.

“We just play with who’ve we’ve got, try and execute the plans we put in place, and we believe any 22 we put on can win a game of footy.”

Saturday’s late withdrawal Tyson Goldsack shapes as a likely replacement for Brown, while midfielder Dale Thomas was the substitute against the Tigers so will carry some freshness into Anzac Day.

Jolly and veteran wingman Ben Johnson might also be chances to return from injury.

The good news is the Magpies go into the match with key forward Travis Cloke in blistering form.

His personal best seven-goal haul against Richmond gives him 12 in the past two games.

Cloke, whose father David played for Richmond and Collingwood and was a dual premiership player with the Tigers, monstered Tigers defender Alex Rance.