ADELAIDE remains confident Patrick Dangerfield will line up against Gold Coast on Sunday, although defender Rory Laird admits the star Crow will be playing "banged up".
Dangerfield played the final quarter against Carlton last Sunday in obvious pain, having suffered a heavy hit to his back.
He underwent precautionary scans early this week, which showed he hadn't suffered any structural damage.
Given the Suns' status as the competition's No. 1 contested possession side this year, Dangerfield's presence will be of particular importance for the Crows.
The 24-year-old acting co-captain is by far his club's best contested ball winner; his 143 contested possessions this year is behind only Sydney Swan Josh Kennedy (162) and Suns skipper Gary Ablett (163).
After training on Wednesday, Laird said Dangerfield was used to carrying injury niggles.
"He's a bit sore at the moment but it's a Sunday-to-Sunday game so I think he's got plenty of time to recover," Laird said.
"Danger usually plays a bit banged up…and he usually plays pretty well.
"I'm pretty confident he'll be fine."
The Crows have claimed success in each of their five games against the Suns, but Laird held no doubt Sunday's game would be the toughest yet.
"We played them last year and they were a really tough side, I think we won by four or five goals in the end but they were showing really quick signs of improvement," he said.
"This year they've been playing exceptional football, they're really coming of age.
"They're a very skillful side, they run hard, they're very clean and they've got a lot of talent up there."
Adelaide will enter the game desperate for a win to remain in touch with the top eight.
A narrow loss to Carlton last Sunday saw them drop a chance to push into the top eight and, facing Fremantle, North Melbourne, Essendon and Port Adelaide after the Suns, wins could prove hard to come by.
Laird said he was determined to play finals football this year, but that his side just needed to find consistency to compete against the best in the League.
"I want to win and I want to eventually play finals this year – that's my main goal," he said.
"It's a bit frustrating at the moment with how we're playing, we have lapses here and there that really hurt us.
"Our pressure around the ball drops off.
"We've shown it against Collingwood that we can do it for four quarters so it's just a matter of doing that week in, week out."
