Influential Adelaide on-baller Rory Sloane will return from injury as the Crows treat Saturday’s home match against lowly Gold Coast as a full rehearsal for the AFL finals.
Sloane missed Adelaide’s victory against Melbourne last Sunday with an elbow injury.
“He has just got … a bit of tendonitis in his elbow which has been troubling him for a couple of weeks,” Crows coach Brenton Sanderson told reporters on Wednesday.
“It’s just his effectiveness to tackle which was the main issue.
“Every player is carrying some sort of minor injury ailment at this time of year.
“But it would have been foolish for us to play him last week and then maybe make the injury worse.”
Sanderson, in his first year as Adelaide coach, has steered the Crows into their first finals campaign since 2009.
But the rookie coach was wary of his players thinking of the play-offs instead of Gold Coast, who upset Carlton last start.
“We are not going to rest any players or manage any players, we will certainly put a strong side out there,” Sanderson said.
“We can’t take Gold Coast lightly … we can’t look too far ahead, we have got to make sure our focus still remains narrow.”
Sanderson admitted being worn by the demands of his initial season as a head coach, which could return second spot on the ladder if results fall Adelaide’s way this weekend.
“This time of year … every player, every coach, is exhausted,” he said.
“We survive on adrenaline.
“We all love September, the opportunity to play in September is something that at the first day of pre-season you dream about.
“So for us, hopefully we finish in the top two – top four is going to be a great result for us though and obviously when we started pre-season in October, we certainly would have taken that.”