Gold Coast remain confident star defender Sam Collins will be ready to take on ladder-leaders Collingwood on Friday night as coach Damien Hardwick weighs up multiple selection calls.
Collins was a late scratching for the side's Round 17 meeting with Essendon at Marvel Stadium due to calf tightness, with the former Docker needing to get through training this week to be cleared to return.
The Suns vice-captain faces a critical training session on Thursday following a quieter block in the build-up, with Collins still no certainty of facing the Magpies.
His coach is hoping to have his key defender when the Suns host Collingwood at Carrara, but the selection call relies on the next 48 hours.
"He will do limited (training) today," Hardwick confirmed.
"We'll get a better understanding tomorrow. We were hoping he'd be one week, we're still relatively confident that he'll get up and play.
"We've got a couple of days to play with, so we won't push him out there today. We'll get a better understanding of that tomorrow."
The Suns will make at least one change to their side for Round 18, with ruckman Jarrod Witts to return to the 23 after being rested for last week's trip to Victoria.
With Witts set to be named, his apprentice Ned Moyle will make way once more in a selection swap that Hardwick confirmed on Wednesday.
"He'll come in," Hardwick said of his senior ruckman.
"We were really happy with Ned Moyle last week, but the plan was always that (Witts) would have a break.
"We've had a lot of stoppages in the last three to four games. So (with) a six-day break, he'll be coming into the shorter one fresh and ready to go."
Gold Coast small forwards are continuing to press their case for recalls, with Malcolm Rosas, Nick Holman, David Swallow, Leo Lombard and Jake Rogers among those waiting in the wings.
While Hardwick is satisfied with his current crop of ground-level options, the Suns coach isn't going to settle on his structure.
"There'll be some guys putting some pressure on. We've been pretty happy with how that forward line has operated," he said.
"Nick Holman is a really important player, 'Mally' Rosas has been in terrific form at VFL level, Leo Lombard is starting to come into his own as well. We've got some really capable players pushing for selection there.
"We've been really happy with what Budarick, Ainsworth, Humphrey and that have presented thus far.
We'll consistently try and figure out what the best mix is. We're not entirely sold on where we are at the moment, it can change. What we do like is the depth we have in that position."
Gold Coast will host Collingwood on Friday night in what shapes as arguably the biggest game in the Queensland club's history, with the two sides set to go head-to-head at 7:40pm (AEST).
