However, another player battling a knee problem, defender Jared Rivers, will miss the clash.

Rivers strained the posterior cruciate ligament in his right knee during Geelong's round one win over Hawthorn and could be sidelined for a month.

"The prognosis was somewhere between two and four weeks, so we're banking on three, but if it is four that wouldn't surprise us," Cats coach Chris Scott said.

There are fewer concerns about Johnson's fitness.

The mercurial midfielder, who had knee surgery on the eve of the home and away season, moved freely during Geelong's open training session at Simonds Stadium on Tuesday morning.

"He's some sort of chance," Scott said. "He'll be disappointed that I've rated him some sort of chance.

"He's very confident that he'll play and the medical staff think he's a chance, but there's just more work that needs to be done before we'll make a definitive judgement.

"In terms of his preparation to play AFL football, through the pre-season he got a lot of work behind him and we're confident that if he's available and comes into the team that he'll be able to perform to a high level."

In other injury news, young ruckman Nathan Vardy is taking longer to recover from his groin problems.

Vardy is likely to spend another weekend on the sidelines before returning via the VFL.

But defender Cameron Guthrie will line up alongside comeback kid Daniel Menzel in Sunday's VFL game against Sandringham at Simonds Stadium.

Guthrie has recovered from the calf strain he suffered in the Cats' final practice match against Collingwood.

Veteran backman Josh Hunt, who was floored by glandular fever in January, is a 50-50 chance to be declared fit enough to take on Sandringham.

Despite a 2-0 start to the season, Scott said he was concerned about the team's slow starts in recent games.

The Cats were five goals down against Hawthorn late in the second quarter in round one, then trailed North Melbourne by 41 points in the second term last weekend.

Tardy starts also dogged the team last season, with the most spectacular example coming in the elimination final against Fremantle at the MCG.

"We're not sticking our head in the sand," Scott said. "We're aware that it cost us at times last year and it could very easily have cost us this year.

"We're really confident that we'll be able to fix those for this week."

The Cats have won all 10 of their games against Carlton at Etihad Stadium by an average margin of seven goals.

Adam McNicol covers Geelong news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter at @AFL_AdamMcNicol