CARLTON expects Marc Murphy and Patrick Cripps to face top-of-the-ladder Port Adelaide on Sunday as the Blues look to back up last week's thrashing of the Western Bulldogs.
Doubt was cast over Murphy's fitness following a hip injury last week while Cripps battled a shoulder problem throughout the clash with the Dogs last Sunday.
THE FULL INJURY LIST Who is racing the clock?
However coach David Teague said the experienced pair should line up after training strongly this week with an unchanged line-up expected for the Blues.
"As far as we know at this stage, they'll be OK. We've got our main training session in a couple of hours but at this stage they all [should play]," Teague said on Friday.
"'Crippa' trained Wednesday with no issue and was doing tackling so he should be right unless something new comes up and 'Murph' ran really well on Wednesday as well so he should be fine as well.
"[Murphy] has to get through training but he had absolutely no awareness [of the injury] on Wednesday…so I'd be very confident he'll play."
The Blues will be searching for their fourth win of the season against 2020's most in-form side, with the Power sitting in top place on the ladder having dropped just one game.
Carlton is continuing its progress under Teague, with the Blues' three victories so far this season – against Geelong, Essendon and the Western Bulldogs – all against finalists last year. They also entered the top eight for the first time since 2013, as the Blues push to now add consistency to their make-up in their bid to return to the finals.
THE LADDER Where is your team sitting?
"We think we're going in the right direction. We believe in the playing list we have and I know the players definitely believe in it. It's being able to control that and that's what the really good teams do, they turn up each week and they play near their best," Teague said.
"They're not always at their best but they play near their best and that's something we're looking forward to. We want that expectation, we want to play in the big games and we want to play the teams at the top of the ladder."
Zac Fisher has been included among Carlton's extended squad but with an unchanged side most likely could again be forced to watch from the sidelines.
Teague said Fisher, who played 21 games for the Blues last year before injuring his ankle in round one, had to continue to play well in the club's scratch matches as he presses for a return.
"We believe strongly in Zac, we believe he's going to be a part of the future of this footy club," Teague said.
"He just hurt himself in round one and missed a fair bit of training in the isolation period and then he's probably been a bit unlucky.
"We believe in his talent but he just hasn't played a lot or trained a lot over the last month, so he just needs to look at the Matthew Kennedy example and continue to train and play well in the reserves games and I've got no doubt he'll be back in the side very shortly."
