Melbourne pair Jack Watts and Dom Tyson will miss at least another week of football.
Demons' coach Simon Goodwin confirmed on Thursday morning both players will miss this week's clash with Adelaide in Darwin.
However, they are in line to return for next week's crucial clash with Port Adelaide at the MCG.
Watts injured his hamstring against the Bulldogs in Round 13, while Tyson sustained a knee injury during the Dees' loss to Sydney in Round 15.
Goodwin said while both were tracking well, they had not recovered enough to return to the side for this week.
"(Watts and Tyson) were both very close, but it's probably at a time of the year where we don't want to take enormous risks with our playing group," Goodwin said.
"We want to make sure they're 100 per cent right to play and with no soreness at all. They're training fully, but we'll give them one more week and get them back the following week.ย
"We train all our players up to play a certain way, so it really isn't personnel based. Clearly we've got some really good midfielders out of the team.ย
"But that's provided a great opportunity for guys like (Christian) Petracca, Mitch Hannan and James Harmes to come into the midfield and โฆ last week (they) were very good in that area."
Goodwin also confirmed Bernie Vince will likely tag star Crow, Rory Sloane, once again.
