The Cats play Collingwood on Thursday night at the MCG, but the short turnaround since Saturday’s hard-fought win over Richmond has left the match committee unable to be certain who will be fit to play.
Thompson said that it was frustrating to be dealing with such a short gap between games.
“In all fairness, we just can’t make decisions – it’s a five day turnaround ... so you can’t really be clear on your side after four days”, he said at Skilled Stadium on Wednesday afternoon.
“It’s a five-day turnaround, so you can’t really be clear on your side after four days.
“So don’t read too much into the team, and understand that it may not be the team that lines up tomorrow night.”
Thompson said while the team had generally recovered well, there would be several changes, although Max Rooke, who received boundary-side treatment during the match against the Tigers, was unlikely to be one who missed out.
“We have pulled up well, and we’ve done a lot of extra work in recovery.
“We haven’t really trained that hard, but we had a session this morning and most of the boys have pulled up pretty well.
“[Max] trained this morning, and all the science behind football departments now, all his readings and indicators state that he has recovered from the game, so even though he hasn’t been cleared to play at the moment, it’s very likely he will play.”
Thompson said the Cats were looking forward to playing the Pies, who thrashed them in round nine last year to be the only side to take points away from them in the home-and-away season.
“They always attract a big crowd, and we always get to play at the MCG – it’s a great stadium, so yeah, we look forward to playing Collingwood.
“We like playing them because they are a very competitive team, and they’re one of the teams that will probably be up there at the end of the year.”
