Burton, 31, underwent a full-knee reconstruction after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament against Collingwood at the MCG in round 15 last year.
The high-flying forward, who claims his knee is stronger than ever, hasn’t missed a beat in his rehabilitation and appeared ready for a return several weeks ago.
However, both Burton and the club opted for an overly cautious approach.
Burton has been in full training for the past fortnight and Craig said the athletic South Australian was on the verge of making a comeback.
“Brett could possibly play in the SANFL system next weekend, but that will depend on the medical staff,” Craig told afl.com.au.
“They have been really happy with him and you wouldn’t pick any difference [between Brett pre- and post-surgery].
“But we’ve got to make sure we don’t make a really poor decision for the sake of one or two weeks. We’ll be guided by how Brett feels, the conditioning staff and the medical staff.
“If there’s any doubt on what week it should be, we won’t take the risk because it’s stupid to do that.”
Forward Trent Hentschel is also on the comeback from his latest injury setback.
Hentschel, 26, made his return to AFL football over the summer and played the opening two rounds of the season before his troublesome knee flared up again.
Hentschel had more surgery on his knee in April and has started running again and managed a heavy training load during Adelaide’s trip to the Yorke Peninsula on Tuesday.
Both Hentschel and Burton are likely to require meaningful time in the SANFL before being considered for AFL recalls and both are out of contract at season’s end.
Craig said there would be no sentiment involved in the decisions made on either player at the end of the year.
“It’s important for Brett to play at some stage this year. The first step would be for him to demonstrate to himself and to us that he looks like he’s going to be okay and be able to get back to AFL level,” Craig said.
“All things going well, we’d like to think that Brett Burton is going to be here again next year, but in the end it won’t be what I or anyone else says, it will be what Brett does [that determines that].”
Craig said the next 10 weeks also represented an “important stage” in Hentschel’s injury-plagued career.
“We’re not going to push Trent hard until he’s ready to play because the reality is he’ll probably only get one more go at it [playing footy] again this year and hopefully when he plays he’ll be able to play the year out.”
Read Neil Craig’s exclusive interview with afl.com.au tomorrow.
