COLLINGWOOD high-flyer Jeremy Howe is making solid progress in his recovery from his most recent bout of thigh surgery, completing a running session at training on Wednesday morning. 

Little more than a fortnight after undergoing a minor procedure to cauterise blood vessels in his right thigh, Howe made a welcome appearance on the track at Olympic Park and moved well enough to suggest he will resume full training in the next week or two. 

Running predominantly on his own in stop-start fashion for about 40 minutes, the star defender generally ran at about half-pace over various distances from 50m to 200m.

After warming up, Howe received a brief massage on the field before returning to the task of putting work back into his legs.

That thigh has been in the news too often in recent times for the liking of both player and club.

Bizarrely, Howe originally sustained a severe cork during the round 19 loss to Richmond last year, but he was unaware of it at the time because he'd also been concussed in the same collision. Consequently, the corked thigh wasn't treated and bled so heavily that he was hospitalised and later underwent surgery to drain blood from the area, sidelining him for the last five home and away rounds.

Howe returned for the finals, when he also battled ankle and shoulder injuries, the latter requiring surgery that kept him out of full training until the start of this month.

Soon after, the 28-year-old was grounded again when he copped a hit to the same spot in his thigh from teammate Darcy Moore at training. 

The presence of the Pies' leadership group member and intercept specialist was another encouraging development for the club, to go with the return to full training of Virgin Australia AFL All Australian ruckman Brodie Grundy and gun backman Jack Crisp on Monday. 

Young midfielders Tom Phillips and Josh Daicos were also back into the fray after copping minor niggles last Friday. 

The Magpies will also sweat on speedy recoveries for star forward pair Jordan De Goey (foot) and Will Hoskin-Elliott (knee), who remain in jeopardy for the season opener against Geelong at the MCG on Friday, March 22. 

On Friday morning Collingwood will host a scratch match against Melbourne at Olympic Park, and the Pies tuned up for that contest with a brief match simulation session in which experienced swingman Ben Reid took a couple of strong marks in attack, fellow veteran Tyson Goldsack was also deployed forward and goalsneak Jamie Elliott impressed with his intensity in his bid for an AFL return after a horrid run with injury. 

Also prominent were skipper Scott Pendlebury, dual reigning club champion Steele Sidebottom and veteran Travis Varcoe, who will each sit out the hitout against the Demons given they will play in the AFLX competition that night. 

AFLX FIXTURES Bolts and Rampage kick it off

Collingwood will open its JLT Community Series campaign against Fremantle in Joondalup on Monday, March 4.