ADELAIDE has received mixed news with its small forwards for Friday night's season opener against Essendon at AAMI Stadium, with Ian Callinan unlikely to play, but Jason Porplyzia every chance.
Callinan, 30, was subbed out of Adelaide's NAB Cup match against Carlton on March 8 after receiving a knock to his knee.
It was only a slight injury, but Crows teammate Rory Sloane confirmed Callinan hadn't recovered in time to take on Essendon.
"It’s been a long week for him, he hasn't done too much this week and didn't do too much again today, [so it's] very unlikely he'll play I think," Sloane said.
"He might have to do a bit of stuff tomorrow morning just to make sure, but I think it might be pretty unlikely for Ian."
Sloane was more optimistic of Porplyzia's chances of facing the Bombers, after the forward was rushed to hospital after the same NAB Cup game against Carlton with a stomach ulcer.
"He moved well in our main session the other day and he trained fine out there [on Thursday]," he said.
"I think he'll be pretty right, 'Jase'."
Sloane said Friday night's match was a chance for the club to move on from a pre-season that had been as "tough" off the field as it had been on it.
The 23-year-old midfielder also said he was looking forward to putting memories of last season's five-point preliminary final loss to Hawthorn to bed.
The heartbreaking defeat kept Sloane awake at times over the summer but lately the anticipation of a new season meant he was too busy to ponder what could have been.
"It's funny, you lie in bed, it might have been a couple of months after and the amount of times little thoughts just pop into your mind about what you could have done during the game and what you'd change next time," he said.
"The last month or two has just been solely focused on round one and there's too much excitement around for round one to think about that.
"I've got a few little butterflies floating around … you just really want to get out there, especially [because] it was tough pre-season for us, a bit going on off-field obviously, so we're really looking forward to playing games and putting everything behind us."
On the back of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority's ongoing investigation into Essendon, Sloane said he expected the Bombers to play as though they had a point to prove on Friday night.
But he was confident the investigation wouldn't be mentioned on the field, with his teammates too concerned about setting the tone for the season.
"I think they'll just be very aggressive at the ball, I think they're just going to want their footy to do the talking," he said.
"We're going to be doing the same, it's just going to be all guns blazing for football, there's not going to be much talk anywhere else I don't think.
"I just don’t think [the investigation's] on players' minds at all, you've got too much to think about out there as it is…we'll be focused on just playing footy."
Rory Sloane is a midfielder in NAB AFL Fantasy. He averaged 91.2 points in 2012. Register your team at our AFL Fantasy hub.
Harry Thring is a reporter for AFL Media. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Harry.
