Collingwood defender Harry O'Brien has been ruled out of Saturday's NAB Cup clashes with the Western Bulldogs and Greater Western Sydney after cutting his finger in an accident at home.
O'Brien was forced to watch training from the sidelines at Gosch's Paddock on Wednesday after slicing his little finger last weekend and having to receive stitches but coach Nathan Buckley is confident he will only miss the matches in Blacktown.
"Yeah he put his hand through a pane of glass at home so we just can't take a trick at the moment," Buckley said.
"It was just a freak accident."
"It's just going to be a week and then he'll be right."
The loss of O'Brien for this week comes on the back of muscle strains suffered by Alan Didak (groin) and Ben Johnson (hamstring) and the announcement last week that Andrew Krakouer has been given a month off to deal with personal issues.
But while the absences of those four players and possibly Nathan Brown and Ben Reid are a blow, Buckley added that it simply means younger players get their chance, with as many as five to play for the club for the first time this weekend.
"We've had a few of those away from training injuries that have popped up but it's just an opportunity for young blokes to come up and take more responsibility in those roles," Buckley said.
"We'll see a lot of youth, there will be a lot of opportunities for blokes to build on their leadership opportunities as well."
"We'll have a few leaders out and young players to be able to play their role within our structure and we expect to perform well."
"The squads will come out tomorrow but basically most of our rookies will be in the squad."
"I think we've got about 10-12 third-year players or less that will be in the squad and ... there will be four or five guys that will be putting on the guernsey for the first time."
After refusing to confirm whether or not Brown will play as he gets set for his first game since the 2010 Grand Final replay after two separate knee injuries ruined his campaign last year, Buckley dismissed suggestions the recent injuries to Didak and Johnson should be a concern.
"Yeah we've had three or four soft-tissue injuries," said Buckley, who has every confidence in the club's highly respected sports science director David Buttifant.
"(But) if we look at our profile it's not dissimilar to previous years."
"Butters (Buttifant) is in charge of our program and our loading and we've been through a heavy training stage but we're not as concerned as the doomsdayers have been at times."