Collingwood’s spluttering AFL form means the Magpies will treat the must-win game against Port Adelaide and the Anzac Day clash against Essendon as entirely separate challenges.

The Magpies and the Bombers have only a four-day turnaround after their Saturday games to the traditional April 25 blockbuster at the MCG.

Collingwood have one win from their first three games and there has been massive fallout from Friday night’s 10-goal loss to Carlton.

Star midfielder Luke Ball will also undergo a season-ending knee reconstruction on Wednesday after he was injured in the Carlton game.

“Given the situation we’re in, we’ve got both eyes firmly on Saturday,” Buckley said.

“We can’t afford to focus on anything other than our training session tomorrow and training with real intensity and focus and then taking it and building towards Saturday.

“We need to perform well against Port Adelaide on Saturday.”

One potential exception to that philosophy is key defender Nathan Brown, who is pushing for his first senior game in 18 months after recovering from serious knee injuries.

Buckley admitted that given Brown has not played senior football for so long, he might only be fit for one of the two matches.

“That’s a consideration, we need to weigh that up,” Buckley said.

The Magpies would dearly love to recall Brown, given Ben Reid and Chris Tarrant are injured, but Buckley said they were awaiting the green light from medical staff.

Midfielder Ben Johnson is also building form in the VFL after recovering from a pre-season leg injury, but Alan Didak still needs more games at that level.

Buckley also nominated Kirk Ugle, Caolan Mooney and Simon Buckley as potential inclusions.

Despite his imminent surgery, Ball trained in the gym on Monday and also attended Tuesday morning’s team training session.

“He’s a phenomenal individual – I can’t stand here and tell you it’s not going to hurt the club, because a bloke with his character and football pedigree not out on the field is going to really challenge our structures,” Buckley said of Ball.

“We need to make sure we tap into his mentality, his mindset and football knowledge through the rest of the year.

“We’ll get him involved as much as we possibly can.”