GEELONG coach Chris Scott says the Cats will be cautious and "take an extra week or two" once Gary Ablett is fit to return from a hamstring injury.

The 33-year-old ramped up his comeback from the strain suffered in round three, running at speed away from the main group on Thursday.

Ablett ran straight lines, changed direction and did resistance running with fitness staff as he works back from his second hamstring injury of 2018 – his previous setback coming five weeks before round one.

"He thinks he's pretty close, which is good news," Scott said on Thursday.

"Certainly the way he's moving indicates that.

"We've got to be careful we're not too flippant of the injury, because the honest answer is we are really respecting it, especially given it's his second one. They're both very minor."

The club has not put a definitive timeline on Ablett's return, Scott preferring to take the safe approach.

"We've got no intention of misleading anybody," Scott said.

"The risk is that we say 'it's only a minor thing and there's no problem' and then we take four weeks with it and we're really cautious, and the accusation is that we didn't tell the complete truth.

"The truth, as best as I can tell it, is that it was a very minor strain that we might take a week or two extra with because we want to be really careful with him, not because it was any more serious than we first thought.

"His age is one of the things that comes into it (return date), but it might be one of 20 things, I don't think it's the primary factor."

Scott said Harry Taylor was closer to a return than Lachie Henderson after the latter underwent his third bout of knee surgery this week since last year's finals series.