Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley expects defender Ben Reid to be fit for next weekend’s bumper clash with Carlton but says the AFL club will be careful with how many other players they bring back.

Reid needed stitches to the mouth after Sunday’s heavy off-the-ball head clash with North Melbourne’s Lindsay Thomas at Etihad Stadium.

But despite fuming over the incident, Buckley didn’t expect it to cost the Magpie a match.

“Reidy will play next week,” the coach said.

Running backman Heath Shaw should be ready to face the Blues after being ruled out 30 minutes before Sunday’s game with food poisoning.

But Buckley was unwilling to offer an opinion on the club’s other pre-game withdrawal, midfielder Dayne Beams (thigh), or veteran Ben Johnson, who was forced out in Sunday’s second quarter with a corked thigh.

They joined an injury list that already included Luke Ball, Dale Thomas, Alex Fasolo, Alan Didak, Andrew Krakouer, Lachy Keeffe and ex-Hawthorn recruit Clinton Young.

“We were wondering whether we’d lost too much quality to be able to play the way that we did tonight,” Buckley said.

“But the fact is it’s not just the talent level of a team that gets you wins, it’s the effort and the perseverance.”

Thomas, Fasolo and Krakouer should be available to face the Blues.

But Buckley said the early rounds were generally as fast and intense as any period of the season, so there would be a limit to how many players the Magpies would bring in.

“You can’t bring seven or eight blokes back into a side fresh,” he said.

“The intensity and demands of this part of the season indicate that you need to have that game exposure.”