A STIFF back has stopped Carlton's Chris Judd from making the trip to Wellington to face St Kilda, but the veteran midfielder is only expected to miss one week.
The Blues decided not to risk the dual Brownlow medalist with travel and a six-day turnaround between the Anzac Day clash with the Saints and the following Friday's big game against Collingwood.
However they expect him to be available to face the Pies in the game in which Mick Malthouse breaks Jock McHale's AFL coaching record.
Judd's teammates were taken by surprise when the former captain failed to board the flight that left Melbourne early on Thursday.
"I didn't actually know he wasn't on the plane until I got on and someone said when we were sitting over the ocean that Juddy wasn't on the plane," ruckman Cameron Wood said after the Blues landed.
"Obviously it will be a big loss but we've got a lot of young players in the squad so we'll have training tomorrow and finalise the team after that."
The Blues' quest for their first win of the season has been made tougher with Chris Yarran (suspension), and Ciaran Byrne (hamstring) also confirmed to miss the game.
Yarran however travelled with the team and will train with them on Friday afternoon at Westpac Stadium.
The Saints will be without star veterans Nick Riewoldt (calf) and Leigh Montagna (knee) for Saturday's game at Westpac Stadium in Wellington.
St Kilda coach Alan Richardson said it was unclear when Riewoldt would return.
"We certainly won't take any risk - we want to make sure he's really strong for us for as much of the season as (he) can," the coach said.
Last year's No.1 draft pick Paddy McCartin was a last-minute addition to the team for the Collingwood game when Riewoldt pulled out.
"There's no doubt we struggled in terms of connecting the back to the front half on the weekend without 'Rooey'," Richardson said.
"For so long, the backs have come out and he's been the man who's presented.
"The numbers against us in terms of entries reflected that.
"We'll mix things up a little bit and Paddy will play again - he'll be better for the run."
While McCartin had minimal impact in his AFL debut, Richardson is confident the young key forward will improve.
"I was reported as saying in an ideal world, he wasn't quite ready and that's still the case," he said.
"But the reality is, we need him and we think he's the next best of our key forwards.
"We think he did some pretty good stuff late in the game - we hope he builds on the way he finished off."
After an upset win over Gold Coast, St Kilda had a bad loss to Collingwood and Richardson said his team's work at the stoppages had let it down.
"Whether it was the boys were a little bit tired, whether it was when the rain set in, the bigger bodies and the experience of Swan and Pendlebury, we got smashed in the middle," Richardson said.
"That presents an enormous challenge - Carlton have been really positive with stoppages, I think they were plus-23 against the Bombers.
"We just have to make sure we're much stronger in there.
"That was really the difference between the two performances."
