ANDREW Mackie was fit enough to complete a few run-throughs at Geelong training on Tuesday morning, but the star defender remains in doubt for the Easter Monday blockbuster against Hawthorn.
Mackie suffered hamstring tightness during the Cats' big win over West Coast on Saturday night and was subbed out of the game in the third quarter.
The injury has been scanned, but the club is giving little away about the extent of the problem.
"We haven't ruled him [Mackie] out, but he's not a certainty either," Geelong coach Chris Scott said prior to training on Tuesday.
"The nine-day break is a little bit of a luxury. We'd probably have to be further along in our decision-making if we were playing on Saturday.
"But given it's a Monday game, he's got a bit more time and we'll delay the decision as well.
"These things are normally quite definitive: you’ve either got a strain or you haven't. This one's not as definitive.
"We don't take risks with injured players, but the advice that we've got at this stage is that it's possible that he will play."
Billie Smedts was another player on restricted duties at training, having been been sidelined since suffering a knock to his leg in the club's last practice match against North Melbourne.
Smedts was initially diagnosed as suffering from bone bruising, but on Tuesday Scott revealed that he actually suffered a crack in a "non-weight-bearing bone in his leg".
"Billie's situation was a little bit hard to come to grips with early on," Scott said.
"What we didn't know is that there was a small crack in there that has come to light in recent times.
"Initially, we were hoping (he'd miss) two, three or four (weeks). Now it looks like somewhere near double that.
"The good news is that he's halfway through that rehab process."
A pleasing sight for everyone at the Cattery was dashing half-forward Steven Motlop, who is on his way back after off-season knee surgery, training with the main group.
As for when he'll return via the VFL, Scott said: "It depends who you ask. If you ask him, he should've played last week, so he's getting very close."
When it comes to players who are a chance to line up against Hawthorn, Mitch Brown, who missed the win over the Eagles due to an ankle problem, trained away from the main group.
But Brown is "in the mix", according to Scott.
"He's had an ankle issue, and we were really quite proud of the way he pushed through a couple of games under duress," the coach added.
"We decided that enough was enough last week and we needed to try and get that right.
"But he'll well and truly come back into the mix for us."
