COLLINGWOOD skipper Scott Burns is winning his battle to be fit for Saturday's elimination final against Adelaide at AAMI Stadium according to teammate Josh Fraser.

Burns, 33, has been sidelined since suffering a badly corked calf against the Sydney Swans in round 21, but Fraser said he had made encouraging progress this week.

"Burnsy trained, or did the warm-up, this morning. I had a good chat to him not long ago and he's confident that it's improving each day, so that's a good start," Fraser said from the Lexus Centre on Wednesday.

"I guess still being mid-week, he's still got to tick a few more boxes, but I think he's edging closer to putting his hand up to play which is great.

"The fact he's improving each day – that's a real positive sign – and I imagine he'll be desperate to play. We'd love to have him back, he's our captain, he's an inspiration and we certainly play a lot better when he's there so I've got my fingers crossed that in the next 48 hours he continues to improve and come Friday he's around the mark.

"He's a straight-shooter, Burnsy, and he's really honest with his body and he's honest with his teammates so … from his point of view it's encouraging."

And in further good news for the Pies, Dale Thomas and Shane Wakelin appear to be fit to take on the Crows after Fraser said both trained well during Wednesday's main session. 

"[Thomas] trained strongly and is probably heading in a similar direction to Burnsy in that he's probably looking likely to be able to put his hand up come tomorrow afternoon or Friday morning," he said.

"I'd say [Wakelin's] really, really likely. I'd say he's a big chance. We're in reasonable shape and hopefully over the next 48 hours we'll get a better idea of who's up and about."

As for his own fitness, Fraser rated his troublesome knee "around a seven or a seven and a half" out of 10, but remained confident he can play his role adequately.

"Certainly in the last month I've been really happy in the direction I've taken with the body," he said.

"I'm mindful of the fact that it's probably not going to be 100 per cent this year, but if I can play my role and keep doing the rehab I need to do throughout the week its positive.

"I'd like a clean slate next year and a big off-season, but hopefully there's still a month of footy to go; I've been really happy with the way it's progressed."