The Cats could regain up to five star players for their round four clash with Port Adelaide at Skilled Stadium.
Cam Mooney and Matthew Scarlett have both served one-match suspensions, Max Rooke (knee) got through his VFL return unscathed, and Brad Ottens (knee) and Darren Milburn (hamstring) are winning their battles with injury.
"If you bring in five players who deserve a game, it's no problem at all if they're better than the ones who are in the team," Thompson said on Tuesday morning.
"Obviously we didn't have our best game on the weekend, so you probably think that if Scarlett, Mooney, Ottens, Rooke and Milburn were available, they'd probably deserve a game."
Milburn and Mooney appear certain starters, while Ottens and Rooke will be monitored throughout the week as will Scarlett, who would have missed the trip to Perth with a back injury had he not been suspended.
Thompson also confirmed small forward Mathew Stokes had returned to the club a week early following his ban after being arrested on drugs charges, and was set to play his first game with Geelong's VFL side this weekend.
"He's back playing in the VFL for four matches, and good on him. We're supporting him 100 per cent, and I'm sure he's going to play really well," Thompson said.
"He's a different guy; he's got a steely determination about what he does. I think he'll be an unbelievable VFL player and he'll force his way back into the (senior) team in round eight - no question about that."
The return of Mooney throws some doubt on the position of tall forward James Podsiadly, who impressed in his AFL debut but looks likely to make way for his more-experienced teammate for structural reasons.
While Thompson was displeased with aspects of Geelong’s performance against Freo, he was happy that his side had emerged from the frenetically-paced opening three games of the season reasonably unscathed.
The weekend's heavy toll of soft-tissue injuries around the league has some talking about capping the number of interchanges to slow the game, but Thompson has his own novel solution.
"If I had my way, I'd make the grounds a bit softer - ask the curators to put more water on them so the tracks aren't as fast, and that would slow players up," he said.
"I think if you put more water on the ground, it naturally slows the game up and that would be a good thing, especially at the start of the year.
"It's just a very easy thing to do to put more water on the grounds. I know it chews up a bit more grass and the curators won't like it, but … winter-time games are slower because people can't run as fast [in the wet]."
