CARLTON skipper Marc Murphy has nominated the round 20 clash against St Kilda as the likely return date from an ankle injury that has already sidelined him for almost two months.

Murphy suffered a high ankle sprain, which involved syndesmosis damage, against Geelong in round 10 and the injury has taken far longer than expected to heal.

The Blues initially set a three-week recovery period after the injury at the end of May but they have gradually pushed that timeframe back.

"People have been calling me Marc 'three weeks away' Murphy on Twitter, which has been a bit of a laugh," he told RSN 927.

Murphy said the next step in his recovery was to complete change of direction work and join in football based drills to test out the ankle.

"I'm starting to run now and I'm stepping [training] up," Murphy said.

"It depends how I go over the next week or two in terms of how I pull up and how I get through all the football training, because I'm just doing straight line running at the moment.

"We'll head to Ikon Park (the Blues' training base) after this and try to step it up a bit, and I’m eyeing off a couple of weeks time."

Asked whether he was a chance to play against the Hawks in Launceston next weekend, Murphy said he was extremely doubtful.

"That's next week (Hawthorn) so that will be a big ask, so probably the week after (against the Saints)."