THE RUN of bad luck for Collingwood defender Ben Reid has continued, with the Magpies suspecting his latest setback is a calf strain.

The 26-year-old will not play in the VFL this week and the Magpies will remain cautious in setting a comeback date.

Stranded on 99 AFL games, Reid had played most of four VFL matches before he hurt his calf playing in the reserves two rounds ago. 

"(Reid) hasn't been able to run or step over his leg much, yet, off that cork," Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley told Fox Footy on Monday night.

"The scans revealed some minor disruption from the knock.

"He still needs to get through a decent block of VFL footy before he becomes a chance of playing AFL and he's still yet to do that, so it's clearly problematic for him and for us."

Buckley said last week no risks would be taken with Reid because of his shocking recent history with soft tissue injuries.

Meanwhile, the Magpies don't expect valuable utility Tyson Goldsack to play against Port Adelaide on Thursday night after he missed the game against Hawthorn with knee tendinopathy.

Magpies football director Neil Balme told the club website they would not play Goldsack until he was 100 per cent fit.

"He won't play this week but hopefully next week he will be right," Balme said.

Levi Greenwood will return to the field this week after missing Saturday's VFL game, with a sore thigh interrupting his return from a broken leg suffered in the pre-season.

Youngster Nathan Freeman is still some way off as he attempts to overcome hamstring problems while Balme said Jackson Ramsey was frustrated with the time taken to recover from a stress related shin problem.

"We're getting on top of it fortunately but it still medium to long-term," Balme said.