STAR Adelaide midfielder Rory Laird has left training early with calf tightness, putting him in doubt for Sunday's home blockbuster against Collingwood.
Laird has won the Crows' past two best and fairest awards and has been prominent in the four-game winning streak that confirmed they are a team on the rise.
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Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks said after Thursday's training he doubts they would make the final call on Laird until Saturday's captain's run.
But he added they had to plan for him not playing.
"There was no risk taken with that one," he said.
"He seemed in pretty good spirits when he was heading off, but we'll have to wait and see.
"We'll do what we can to have him right, but there's a bigger part to our season as well.
"We have an incredibly tough run coming up - maybe one (game) out is better than three or four."
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Given Nick Daicos's remarkable start to this season, a key talking point ahead of Sunday is how Adelaide deals with the form of the AFL's reigning Rising Star.
An obvious match-up would be Ben Keays, who claimed Carlton defender Adam Saad as an impressive scalp a fortnight ago.
While Nicks acknowledges Daicos is a key opponent, he is wary of putting too much emphasis on stopping him.
"There's so much commentary around it and I've watched Nick play, he's an outstanding player," Nicks said.
"The less he has the ball in his hands the better for us, because he's so good with the footy.
"It's not easy to do, though. We'll definitely put some time into Nick.
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"They are where they are because they're an outstanding footy team - Nick is part of that. I'm hoping Nick doesn't have too many uncontested possessions."
Nicks also said there might be hidden perils in trying to subdue Daicos with a hard tag.
"There are dangers that you make him go forward - and he wins the game off his own boot in the last quarter," he said.
