ADELAIDE will be without skipper Taylor Walker and midfielder Brad Crouch for the club's opening round clash against Essendon on Friday night.

Walker is out with a foot injury that forced him to miss the JLT Community Series, while Crouch also didn't play in the pre-season competition with an abdominal strain.

"I was very close, it just comes down to I haven't had enough conditioning in my body to play my role," Walker told Triple M on Tuesday morning.

"I personally think if I go out there Friday night I won't be able to help the team because I'm not conditioned enough, so I'd be letting the team down.

"I'll do a session on Saturday morning and there's a couple of us that will do that in preparation for playing next week.

"(Playing Richmond in round two) is definitely my target."

Walker confirmed both Crouch and forward Riley Knight (foot) would be unavailable to face the Bombers.

Crows general manager of high performance, Matt Hass, said Walker was close to selection.

"Taylor strained his plantar fascia about six weeks ago and since then has done everything he could to get up in time for round one," Hass said.

"He started training with the main group last week and looked really good.

"Unfortunately, he hasn't quite done enough to be available for Friday night.

"It's a long season and given the importance of Taylor to our playing group we didn't think it was worth the risk.

"He will build up his training loads with the aim of being available for round two."

Walker's injury means it's almost a certainty that Darcy Fogarty – last year's No.12 overall draft pick – will make his AFL debut.

Fogarty pushed his claims in the JLT clash with Port Adelaide, booting three first-half goals.

Walker was confident the Crows had the depth to cover for the players who were out.

"We spoke as a group the other day why we're in good shape; one of the reasons is we've got depth in our squad," Walker said.

"Through people missing out it creates opportunity.

"Guys like Darcy Fogarty, Tom Doedee, (Cam) Ellis-Yolmen, Curtly Hampton, that haven't had much of an opportunity, will now get an opportunity to play for our footy club."