Collingwood livewire Bobby Hill will play a full game in the VFL on Saturday as he continues to build up his loads in a bid to return to the AFL.
On Thursday, Pies coach Craig McRae said that Hill's return will be based on the high-performance team's decision, but he's heading in the right direction.
"Bobby is progressing," McRae said.
"I leave it up to high performance when he's fit and available. He didn't play a full game last weekend.
"As much as we like what he's doing on the field, he's still got a lot of work to do. We're anticipating that (he'll play a full game).
"He hasn't trained today (Thursday). He trained last night with the VFL.
"This is a long time out of the game. Some of its performance, some of its around his ability to get through a full game, which he's not quite done yet."
McRae also confirmed that Scott Pendlebury, Jeremy Howe and Beau McCreery will return to face Geelong on Saturday.
Important duo Darcy Cameron (ankle) and Steele Sidebottom (hand) have also been ticked off for the Cats clash.
Pendlebury will return for game 432, equalling the current V/AFL games record holder and North Melbourne icon Brent Harvey.
McRae defended the decision to manage the Pies champion off a five-day break, saying the club has a "deliberate plan".
"Pendles hasn't played too many five-day breaks in his history if you go back in time," he said.
"That's been reported that being selfish. I would have thought Pendles is the least selfish person in our team, but also about what we want.
"He wouldn't have played last week to be honest. He wasn't in a position to play physically."
McRae also weighed on a specific jumper guernsey that will celebrate Pendlebury when he breaks the games record, saying the football world should want to celebrate him, regardless of how it looks.
"If we're just considering that someone's bigger than the team for one day, can't we celebrate one person?"
"It doesn't mean he's going to play outside the rules. Doesn't mean he's going to play different to our game plan. Doesn't mean the team will try and give him the ball all the time. No, we just want to celebrate one person.
"I know that Pendles will say this, and he says it all the time when we have big games, let's not play the occasion. Let's play the game. I think for this one time, let him play the occasion, and we'll play the game."
The premiership coach was quizzed about the reported interest in Brisbane star Lachie Neale given his unrestricted free agency status and uncertain future.
"We (Collingwood list management) have a monthly meeting where I'm very active and we want to bring good players in with us."
