Young Carlton duo Paddy Dow and Zac Fisher both remain sidelined for this weekend's clash with Geelong.
Fisher has been missing from the side since injuring his ankle in the Blues' Round 1 loss to Richmond and during an interview on the club website, Carlton director of high performance Andrew Russell says Fisher needs time to rebuild match fitness.
"He lost a lot of conditioning because he basically couldn’t run for seven weeks. There’s no magic when you recondition these guys: you need to do the work," Russell said.
"He’s getting better, he’s back into skills training and going well."
"He probably won’t play this week, he’s a good chance to play the week after."
Dow is also at least a few weeks away from playing after suffering a minor knee injury during the shutdown period.
"It hasn’t settled as we thought it would: we thought it was going to be a very low-level issue," Russell said.
"He hasn’t been able to get back into skills yet. He’s running, he’s training hard."
"We’re trying a couple of different things this week that helps him turn the corner."
In other injury news at Ikon Park, Matthew Kreuzer is a "realistic option for the year down the track" and could be available within the next two months.
Young ruckman Tom De Koning is available for selection this week after recovering from an ankle injury.
The 0-2 Blues meet the the Cats this Saturday night at GMHBA Stadium.
