PORT Adelaide captain Connor Rozee is a confirmed starter for Thursday night's Showdown against Adelaide, with coach Ken Hinkley saying the club has weighed up the risk of him re-injuring his hamstring.

Rozee didn't finish last Friday night's win against St Kilda due to a hamstring issue, but has cleared all medical tests ahead of the grudge match at Adelaide Oval.

"There's always a risk with any injury to a hamstring of any type," Hinkley said on Wednesday.

"So you know the challenge with that is whenever they play, there's always going to be a little bit of a risk.

"So for those people who are sitting there with the doomsday saying 'you're taking a big risk' - we're taking a normal risk with an injury like this."

Hinkley kept his selections cards close to his chest, but he must replace Aliir Aliir (concussion) and Sam Powell-Pepper (knee reconstruction) from last week's win over St Kilda.

Utility Jeremy Finlayon has served his three-game ban for making a homophobic slur against an opponent and looks set to return.

"Jeremy has had to do a lot of work over the last month and he's done as much as he can possibly do," Hinkley said.

"He's ready emotionally to take on the next part of that challenge and that's something he's just going to have to work through and we'll support him all the way through that.

"He is a resilient fella, he has been through a fair bit.

"And this is his own doing, but we expect that he'll be able to handle most of the stuff that comes his way."

Adelaide will debut prized No.8 draft pick Dan Curtin at AFL level, with the 19-year-old West Australian impressing his coach Matthew Nicks.

"He's going to bring some real weapons to this game that we know are going to be important to this footy club going forward," Nicks told reporters on Wednesday.

"We don't expect him to come out and dominate a Showdown in his first game.

"But we feel that he's ready, mentally and physically, to play in a game at this level.

"And we're confident that he's going to be a really important part of where we're going."

Nicks also dismissed reports Luke Pedlar would miss the rest of the season because of a shoulder injury.

"I'm not sure where that came from, we have a fair bit still to work through there from a risk point of view and moreso looking at the scans in more detail," he said.

"We want to give him every possible chance to try and get himself back this year but he will miss a few weeks.

"We won't put him at any risk with that decision. But by no means is he done (for the season)."