ADELAIDE is confident Jordan Dawson will be ready to face his former club Sydney on Saturday after the defender battled gastro this week.

Dawson, one of the recruits of the year, missed main training on Wednesday to put him in some doubt for the clash at the SCG.

But coach Matthew Nicks expects the 25-year-old, who is averaging a career-high 24.4 disposals in 2022, to face the Swans.

"He's fine. He's pulled up really well, missed Wednesday's main session, but that was more precautionary than anything," he told reporters on Friday.

"Some of these gastros that are going through at the moment are 24 hours and we were a bit lucky with that one.

"He's pretty confident. He trained Thursday, got another session in today that he'll get done and we'll make sure that he's ready to go."

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Dawson requested a trade from the Swans at the end of last year, returning to his home state of South Australia by joining the Crows.

His impact for Adelaide this week also extends beyond his usual duties, with Nicks using his knowledge of the Swans as the Crows try to cause an upset.

"'Daws' has done a fair bit of oppo (opposition analysis) this week for us," he said.

"When a player comes from another club, he knows them inside out, he knows how they play, he knows the coach, has a huge amount of respect for them so that was really interesting, hearing from him this week, and what it is that Sydney do well.

"They've changed some stuff probably since he's left, but he knows the players well, he knows the ground really well. We'll go up and have a run out there this afternoon and we'll probably hear from him again, but without putting too much pressure on Jordy and what Sydney do, he's given us a lot of information."

After falling to Collingwood by five points in a thriller in round 18, the Crows (5-12) head to Sydney unchanged.

But Nicks is aware of the enormity of the challenge of facing one of the premiership contenders.

"There's a fair few things we've got to get right. They're an outstanding side, especially on the SCG, they play their best footy there," he said.

"That's our challenge, is to go across and not many people will have us for the win on this one, but we will. We enjoy those challenges.

"I'd say if you look across the year, we've risen to the more tougher challenge and this is definitely one of those."