Port Adelaide will be without captain Travis Boak for Saturday's AFL home clash with St Kilda after the star on-baller was a late withdrawal.
Boak was ruled out Friday after failing to recover sufficiently from the ankle injury he suffered in the Power's shaky win over Melbourne in Alice Springs last weekend.
Unable to train this week, the 25-year-old will miss the Adelaide Oval match along with speedster Matt White (foot), another casualty from the trip to Alice Springs.
"Boaky didn't attempt to train, he got to training and was sore from running so we made a pretty quick decision that we wouldn't need to push him to that point," said Port coach Ken Hinkley on Friday.
"Matty White went out on the track and had a go, did the first bit of training, but said changing in direction was still painful."
Hinkley was optimistic that neither player be sidelined beyond this week.
"Very hopeful it's only one (game), that's why we have to make that call now and ensure we don't make it multiple weeks by playing them," he said.
Midfielder Ben Newton, who has been in red-hot form for Port Adelaide's reserves side in the SANFL, and versatile livewire Sam Gray, are Boak and White's replacements.
Former skipper Dom Cassisi, defender Tom Jonas and Hamish Hartlett, who returns from suspension, are also included at the expense of injured pair Andrew Moore (shoulder) and Paul Stewart (knee), and the omitted Jake Neade.
With five changes to a side coming off an unconvincing performance against the Demons, Hinkley remains wary of the threat St Kilda, coached by friend and former Power assistant Alan Richardson, pose to his side.
Hinkley, however, played down any hype surrounding his clash with Richardson whose coaching style has drawn comparisons to that of his own.
"It doesn't really matter what we do and don't know about each other," he said.
"It will be a little bit of assistance at some stage, but really once the game starts it's who's on top and the 22 on the ground that will be the biggest determining factor.
"Ladder positions don't mean much at the start of any game, they look great during the week but they don't mean much at the start of the game."
St Kilda has made four changes to the team that was belted by 86 points by Collingwood last Friday.
Defender Tom Simpkin, forward Tom Lee and promising midfielders Josh Saunders and Sam Dunell replace Adam Schneider (foot) and omitted trio Rhys Stanley, Tom Curren and Arryn Siposs.
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