The 26-year-old has been dogged by hamstring injuries this season, missing five matches with three separate strains, the last of which occurred in the third quarter of the qualifying final win over St Kilda.
He ran laps at Thursday's final training session while teammates put the finishing touches to their preliminary finals preparations.
"We’re not going to worry about next week until we get this week done and under control," he said.
"We’ll wait and see what happens with Chappy from there."
Hinkley said the Cats were not about to take short cuts simply because it was finals.
"We made a decision based on the facts and the facts are we have to have fit players," he said.
"Our medical team has been fantastic and we’ve made early calls and made sure we don’t put the team at risk for the sake of an individual, and that’s what we’ve done again."
Only six players have played all 23 games for the Cats in 2008.
While Chapman has been ruled out, teammate James Kelly ticked the final box in his quest to break into the side after missing the last three matches with a quad strain.
Kelly moved freely in the 30-minute session, while the same could not be said for skipper Tom Harley who did only light work away from the group and left the training track early.
It was rumoured Harley twinged a hamstring late in the qualifying final win over St Kilda. Steve Johnson also left the track early after receiving treatment on his lower back.
David Wojcinski, Ryan Gamble and Shannon Byrnes trained strongly and will come into calculations when the side is announced on Thursday night.
Hinkley said the experience of last year had played a part in this year’s campaign but that it guaranteed nothing.
"We’ve had all the advantages of experiencing those things but you’ve still got to go out and do the job," he said.
"It’s a great time to be involved in the football club, but you always have that nervous anxiety about wanting to get the job done and proceeding to the next week.
"We've approached every game this year on a week-by-week basis and we're not going to do anything different this week.
"We're going to approach the game knowing that there's a contest to be done and we have to go out there and do our best and be our ruthless best to make sure we come away with the win."
