DEFENDER Michael Johnson was a notable absentee from Fremantle training on Wednesday as he continues his recovery from back surgery last September.

Johnson missed last year's finals campaign after succumbing to a back injury in round 23, which required surgery.

He is still being carefully managed in his recovery and remained in the gym during the Dockers' sapping two-hour session at Fremantle Oval on Wednesday morning.

There was a heavy focus on ball movement, transition and spread from stoppages during the lengthy session in near 30-degree heat.

Midfielder Michael Barlow said Johnson was on track but was being monitored day to day. 

"He was definitely the most significant off-season injury," Barlow said.

"Johnno's build has been really quite steady with the significance of the injury.

"Obviously not being able to play in the finals series last year, we really did miss him. It shows how important he is that he has three or four of the sports science guys in charge of him and probably the senior coach as well as Mick Prior the defensive coach checking with him on a daily basis.

"He hasn't had any setbacks.

"He shouldn't be too far away now. I know he's doing some really solid conditioning work now."

There was a heavy focus on ball movement, transition and spread from stoppages during the lengthy session in near 30-degree heat.

Colin Sylvia was also absent, despite running freely before Christmas. The 28-year-old had ankle surgery during the off-season to correct soft tissue issues in his calf that he suffered late last season.

"Co's had a couple of setbacks with his rehab over the off-season and then into the pre-season period," Barlow said.

"He's one who's not too far away. The ankle itself has been quite good. I think it's just the rest of the body adapting to the surgery. He's going as well as everyone else in rehab and hopefully he'll step back into the main group quite quickly."

The Dockers rehab group is relatively small according to Barlow.

Ryan Crowley, Luke McPharlin, Aaron Sandilands and Anthony Morabito also missed training, but it is not out of the ordinary for Fremantle players to be managed differently during the pre-season. 

The Dockers' first-year players were away in Melbourne at the AFL Players' Association induction camp while the second-year players were also absent.

Nat Fyfe trained freely through the first half of the session but withdrew from the last half an hour to test his shoulder with some light contact work. Fyfe had minor surgery on his AC joint in November, after being injured in the lead-up to the International Rules test against Ireland.

"He was the most disappointed man in the world when he couldn't represent his country," Barlow said.

"He said the other day, at the time he was really disappointed he couldn't participate in that series with the injury, but going forward getting the surgery and being ready to go this time of year was priority one."

Hayden Ballantyne also left the main session halfway through to do some running.

Lee Spurr and Matt Taberner ran laps for the majority of the session.