Reports emerged on Thursday that suggested Franklin had injured his ankle at training and was in doubt to play the Tigers.
However, Clarkson has poured cold water on the rumour despite Franklin and captain Luke Hodge training in runners and away from the main group on Friday at Waverley.
"We're expecting he's going to play. There was no incident at training. We've got a six day break so he just had a lighter week this week in terms of his training but there was no incident at training," he said.
"It's all about management. If you track back and look at seasons gone by, the first four or five rounds of the season are treacherous in term of serious injury.
"There are some instances you cannot manage like the Jonathan Brown incident and Lenny Hayes; they're just going to happen early in the season unfortunately.
"The soft tissue ones and the groins are the ones you really need to protect for early in the season and we're just mindful they're pretty important players for us so we want to make sure they're on the track."
Collingwood has revealed part of its plan for managing players this season is to rest midfielders at times so they can cope with the extra workload associated with the substitute rule.
Clarkson said the Hawks could potentially go down a similar path if their list stayed healthy.
"In a sense we're forced to rest one every week in regards to the sub rule because we haven't activated our sub until well into the third quarter or three quarter time," he said.
"We've had one player each week who has played 40 minutes of footy.
"You can actually use that as an opportunity to give a guy a little bit of a spell from week to week.
"Collingwood is considering taking that a step further and resting a player altogether and that might be an appropriate strategy as well.
"I don't think they'll be resting too many if they have a few injuries. At the minute, they've got a great healthy list to pick players from, as have we, and that sort of consideration will come into play for all clubs I'm sure if they're playing well enough and winning games like Collingwood are, and if they have a healthy list."
The Hawks are expecting a tough match from the Tigers, who are yet to notch a win this season but have been painfully close after coughing up a lead to Carlton and drawing with St Kilda last weekend.
"They were just unable to capitalise on those winning positions so they're going to be a pretty formidable opponent. We'll really need to hunt the contest hard," Clarkson said.
"They're particularly strong through the middle and if they win that battle, they'll give [Jack] Riewoldt enough supply to be able kick themselves a winning score."
He also expressed his disappointment over Cyril Rioli's suspension for what he described as a "very minor incident" against Melbourne's Nathan Jones.
