ADELAIDE could be strengthened by the return of gifted midfielder Brad Crouch for Friday night's clash against Hawthorn at the MCG.
The 22-year-old was forced to pull out of the Crows' round three win over Richmond with a hamstring strain and has spent the past fortnight nursing the injury.
Crows high performance manager Brett Burton said Crouch would have to pass a fitness test later this week before being declared fully fit to play.
"Brad's been going along really well over the last week or two," Burton told the club's website on Monday.
"He's been building up his training loads from that slight hamstring strain. We'll assess him later in the week to see whether he'll be available for selection."
Meanwhile, young gun Wayne Milera will not take on the triple reigning premiers after experiencing quad soreness during the last quarter of Saturday night's 10-point win over the Sydney Swans.
Burton said Milera, who was recruited with pick No.11 in last year's NAB AFL Draft, would now have scans to determine the severity of the quad complaint.
"We're still gathering information on that and we'll have an update in the next 24-48 hours," he said.
Former GWS half-back Curtly Hampton, 23, is expected to miss another two months after having surgery late last week to correct a stress reaction in his left foot.
"We made the decision to be aggressive with that and he had surgery on Friday just to release the plantar fascia," Burton said.
"That surgery has quite a good success rate, so we expect Curtly to be available again in six to eight weeks."
In better news, Burton added that ruckman Sam Jacobs was a certainty to play this week after being cleared of any damage to his knee following a third-quarter knock against the Swans.
"He was assessed and it was just a knock on the knee, so he went back out and was able to finish the game," Burton said.
"He'll be available to play this week."