THE QUICK ball movement from playing under the roof at Etihad Stadium will come into Adelaide's decision whether to play skipper Taylor Walker and midfielder Brad Crouch in Friday night's season opener against Essendon.

Walker was in a moon boot at the start of February to deal with a plantar fascia injury in his foot, while Crouch was managed through the pre-season due to his injury history before suffering an abdominal strain.

"It is tough to come from no pre-season to try and get straight back into round one, especially against someone like Essendon, who play really quick footy at Etihad," Crows defender Daniel Talia said on Monday.

"The ball zips around and especially the teams that play there on a regular basis, you think of St Kilda, Essendon, they play with real speed.

"Lots of the games are real high intensity, lots of sprinting up and down and the ball does move really quick, so you've got to factor that in.

"You do pull up a bit sore, probably compared to an Adelaide Oval or a softer ground, but that's probably just indoor footy."

Walker and Crouch didn't play any of the Crows' JLT Community Series games, but increased their training loads on Saturday.

"He and Tex, for the first time, were doing a couple of drills and getting up and running, kicking and changing direction," Talia said.

"All the things you need to do to play.

"Both of them being out for a long time (makes them unlikely), but they're certainly getting there.

"It's probably easier for a guy like Tex who has played a lot of footy over the years and his body is a bit further along than Crouchy's.

"Crouchy's had a couple of injuries over the years and you need to be a bit more cautious with someone like that."

If Walker doesn't play then the door is open for last year's No.12 overall draft pick Darcy Fogarty to make his debut.

Fogarty was impressive against Port Adelaide in the second JLT game with 18-year-old booting three first-half goals.

Talia said fellow defender Alex Keath had recovered from an ankle injury sustained against the Power and was in the mix for round one.

It will be a choice between Keath and untried third-year defender Tom Doedee to fill the role vacated by Jake Lever.

"If you go with a smaller guy, like Tom Doedee, who's not quite as tall as Keathy, you get that rebound and that intercept marking," Talia said.

"He's able to do that, so there's pros and cons with both.

"It'll be a really tough decision, because in my mind, both guys have earnt the right to play, but there's only one spot there."