GEELONG has made the shock call to drop half-forward Brad Close for Thursday night's clash with Adelaide, while recruit James Worpel has only been named in the emergencies despite recovering from a finger injury.

The injury-hit Crows, meanwhile, have brought in four players to replace their injured stars, with Hugh Bond, Zac Taylor, Luke Nankervis and Finnbar Maley all coming in, the latter for his club debut.

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Close has played 53 consecutive games and has not missed for the Cats since round nine, 2023 (when he was suspended), but he has been omitted here after managing just four disposals in the win over Fremantle in round one and eight touches against Gold Coast in Opening Round.

Forwards Ollie Henry and Ollie Wiltshire (for just his third AFL game) have been recalled by the Cats, while skipper Patrick Dangerfield was ruled out earlier this week with a calf injury.

Worpel, recruited from Hawthorn in the off-season, picked up 17 disposals on his Cats debut against the Suns before missing the loss to the Dockers due to injury, but he's not been able to win a recall this week.

The Crows had already confirmed four big omissions, headlined by skipper Jordan Dawson (calf) and recruit Callum Ah Chee (hamstring).

Veteran Taylor Walker is being managed, while Rory Laird (calf) is also out.

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Speaking earlier on Wednesday, Cats coach Chris Scott indicated Close's return to the VFL is a move to get him back to full fitness.

"We don't think he's had an optimal sort of preparation to this point, and we’d like to make the most of these long breaks between games to get some more training in,” Scott said.

"He’ll get a little bit of VFL game time as well – unlikely that it would be full game time.

"But we think we can put a program together for him to get him back to his best pretty quickly, physically, and have him available for the Hawthorn game.

"It’s quite a proactive move in our opinion."

THURSDAY, MARCH 26

Geelong v Adelaide at GMHBA Stadium, 7.30pm AEDT

GEELONG

In: O.Wiltshire, O.Henry
Out: B.Close (omitted), P.Dangerfield (calf)

ADELAIDE

In: H.Bond, Z.Taylor, L.Nankervis, F.Maley
Out: R.Laird (calf), J.Dawson (calf), T.Walker (managed), C.Ah Chee (hamstring)