Collingwood champion Steele Sidebottom will miss his side's grudge match with their oldest rival, Carlton, on Thursday night.
The 35-year-old utility copped a knock in Collingwood's dour loss to Fremantle at Gather Round, and after leaving the training track just 10 minutes into Tuesday morning's session, coach Craig McRae confirmed the expected absence of his classy ball-user.
Sidebottom pointed to his upper right leg, with suspicions of a hamstring or hip pointer injury immediately abounding. He immediately gestured to medical staff that he could no longer continue.
"He got a knock in the hip pointer, so he won't play," McRae said.
"We've got a six-day break and there's actually a lot of bleeding there."
Explosive commodity Jordan de Goey will also miss the clash with the old enemy, as he works his way through the AFL's stringent concussion protocols.
The two absences leave McRae scrambling for quick fixes to an engine room that has sputtered badly in the season's early sledding. The duo leaves a void of a combined 546 games of experience, and the Pies appear bereft of solutions to such a conundrum.
Ed Allan and Lachie Sullivan were the unlucky omissions when Scott Pendlebury and Nick Daicos returned last week, but could receive a reprieve given the absence of Sidebottom and De Goey.
Collingwood is still working on its front half connection after struggling in the past fortnight to score against Brisbane and Fremantle.
Veteran Jeremy Howe was training with the forward line on Tuesday, and is being considered as an option inside 50 on Thursday.
"There's little things we can do to improve," McRae said.
"Chemistry. Connection. I keep wrestling with, is it method or is it personnel? We're trying to improve our method to see if it is personnel.
"(Howe) trained forward today, and I'm open-minded to all sorts of things. We might not have enough troops down back to support that, but we might train him there over the next few weeks, just if we need to throw him forward, or when Darcy's back."
Reef McInnes will play a full game in the VFL this weekend, while Jack Buller will remain in the reserves despite an impressive stretch in the past two games.
Star Pie Nick Daicos will bring up his 100th AFL game against the Blues on Thursday night.
"In terms of what he's been able to do for us, I started the same time as him, and very grateful for him being part of our footy club," McRae said.
"He's made such a difference to us. His growth as an individual, as a leader, and as a player has taken us on an incredible journey the last four years. What a player, what a professional. He does things that I don't think I've seen others do."
McRae drew comparisons to a former Brisbane teammate and Brownlow Medallist.
"I saw a young Simon Black come into the game as a player, and he had an incredible career," the Pies coach added.
"This guy (Daicos) has every attribute to be one of the greatest players of all time. I think he's destined to be a leader of this footy club."
