Collingwood forward Mason Cox will miss his side's clash with Richmond on Thursday night.
Cox has battled a knee issue during the shutdown and Magpies coach Nathan Buckley said the American hasn't had enough preparation for the season reopener.
It paves the way for new Magpie Darcy Cameron to potentially play his first game in the black and white stripes.
โThat decisionโs been made. Coxy wonโt play,โ Buckley toldย Fox Footy.
โHeโll play in the Wednesday night scrimmage with the non-selected players against the Richmond boys. The reasoning for that is he's just missed a couple of match practice sessions, pretty much eight quarters of our preparation.
โSo weโre going in with our hardest, fittest team and the players that are the most ready for Round 2. Coxy just falls shy of that.
The Tiger are set to be boosted by the return of defender Bachar Houli, who missed Round 1 with a calf strain.
โWeโve got our main training tomorrow (Tuesday), so at this stage heโs highly probable,โ Tigers coach Damien Hardwick toldย Fox Footy.
โHe played two quarters last week in our scratch match and then did some extra running alongside that, so weโre very confident that Bachar will be available to play.โ
In other news, Geelong recruit Josh Jenkins (back) us unlikely for his side's clash with Hawthorn on Friday night, while new Demon Harley Bennell could make a fairytale return against Carlton on Saturday night.
Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin admitted he was 'very tempted' to pick Bennell.
"I want to (play him)," he told reporters.
"It's very tempting and it's exciting. We always thought he'd be ready about mid-year and it just happens to be round two, so he's done everything right.
"He's done a lot of training in isolation, but more importantly he's done everything we've asked of him in the last three weeks. He's definitely putting the pressure on.
"What it will be is a fairytale story for Harley. He's gone through a lot on and off the field and it's been a long time since he's played his last game of AFL football.
"We'll leave it with (high-performance manager) Darren Burgess and the medical team to come up with a decision, but he's going to be around the mark.
โHe's very close and it's very exciting for the Melbourne supporters."
