GEELONG will make a game-day decision on the fitness of young forward Lincoln McCarthy for Friday night's clash against Adelaide at Adelaide Oval.

McCarthy injured his ankle against West Coast at Simonds Stadium on Saturday, although scans cleared him of any damage.

Cats coach Chris Scott said he had "recovered rapidly" since the weekend and was more likely to play than not, but the Cats would take every precaution with McCarthy given his injury history.

"We've got a bit of room to wait a little bit longer with this one," Scott said.

"Lincoln's certainly one who's improved rapidly. Right at the moment our expectation is that he'll play, but we don't feel like we have to make the call right now."

Nakia Cockatoo is also no certainty to get up for the game after injuring his calf against the Eagles. The speedster battled through the injury and played out the game to ensure the Cats would have enough interchange rotations.

"That isn't generally our policy. We're usually very conservative with young players," Scott said.

"The situation with Nakia is that it was a very difficult assessment to make and the diagnosis is still not clear at the moment, so we're not sure of his status at the moment but optimistic it's not a serious issue."

That opens the door for young midfielder George Horlin-Smith, who will travel to Adelaide as part of the Cats' squad. Horlin-Smith has been in sensational form at VFL level so far in 2016, averaging 25 disposals from four games.

"We've had a couple of guys performing really well at VFL level and Horlin-Smith is well and truly at the forefront of those," Scott said.

"It's likely he'll be in our squad this week and he's a very good chance to play.

"We've been keen to get George in for a long while. We're not exactly whether we can do it right at the moment, but if he's not in our 22, he's certainly our 23rd."

Scott expects injury-prone forward Mitch Clark to be available to play again sometime in June.

Clark has had to fight through a number of setbacks with his troublesome calf, and has not played since round nine against West Coast last season.

"There's positive news about Mitch," Scott said.

"He's back training and he's looking quite fit as well. There won't be an overly long return to play period for him.

"I'm loathe to give specific timeframes, but if you were to say somewhere between three and seven (weeks), I reckon that's about right."

The clash against the Crows pits star midfielder Patrick Dangerfield against his old side for the first time.

Dangerfield was the highest-profile trade of last year's player exchange period when he joined the Cats in the off-season, but Scott said Dangerfield and the club would embrace the added expectation and pressure.

"The real competitors love a hostile environment; if anything it spurs you on to greater things," Scott said.

"I've heard Patrick talk about it publically this week. He relishes those moments, and we'd rather play the good teams in a challenging environment than going through the motions."

Dangerfield is due to speak to the media at Melbourne Airport on Thursday and then again in Adelaide when the team touches down later that afternoon.