Brown, who joined the Magpies at the end of 2008, will line up in his 200th AFL match this weekend when Collingwood takes on Richmond at the MCG.
Fraser had surgery to repair lingering damage to a knee late last month and has missed his side’s wins over Carlton, the Brisbane Lions and Adelaide.
While he failed to appear with his teammates at training at Gosch’s Paddock on Wednesday morning, Brown said Fraser was close to returning and was among few concerns for the Pies.
“Josh would be pretty close,” Brown said before training.
“Obviously he had an outstanding start to the year but [his injury] has given Cameron Wood an opportunity in the last few weeks and he’s really taken that and is playing some really good footy.
“So I think that just shows the depth of the club. We’ve maybe got one or two guys who might miss out on selection in terms of injury this week, but apart from that everyone else is fit and firing.
“It really puts pressure on the rest of the group to keep performing and take it to another level and keep our form up.”
The Magpies have won 10 of their past 11 matches to sit a game clear in third position.
Brown, who played 63 games for Fremantle and 118 matches for North Melbourne before the Pies drafted him in last year’s NAB AFL Draft, is looking forward to the rest of the year as his club continues to storm into premiership contention.
“I think we all play footy to play in finals and to play in big matches, and that’s probably the exciting thing that’s coming up,” he said.
“We’ve put ourselves in a place to give us a really good opportunity and in the next three weeks we’ll hopefully continue on our good form … and keep improving.”
