Geelong will take an ultra-conservative approach to the recovery of exciting young forward Nakia Cockatoo, who has twice suffered hamstring injuries early in AFL games this season.
Cockatoo lasted only a few minutes of last Thursday's loss to West Coast, having also missed most of the round-nine win over the Western Bulldogs with a similar hamstring injury.
Combative midfielder Scott Selwood also went down with a hamstring complaint in the third term against the Eagles, although he's yet to be categorically ruled out of Sunday's home clash with Fremantle.
"Fortunately both of those minor issues were picked up before they became major issues," coach Chris Scott said on Wednesday.
Scott acknowledged that the 20-year-old Cockatoo - like most young AFL players - was still learning about his body and the physical toll placed upon it by elite-level football.
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"The next time he will need to be absolutely, categorically right and then we will probably wait a little bit longer," said Scott.
"He's an important young player and he's a really explosive player as well and they tend to be prone to these types of things.
"It's really minor but it was significant enough that he couldn't play and it left us one down for virtually the whole game so it was not a great outcome for us.
"I'm loath to say we'll be more careful next time because I think we're always aiming to be as good as we possibly can, but every player's injury history does get factored into the decision-making."
Spearhead Tom Hawkins is certain to return against the Dockers after serving a one-match suspension for a jumper punch to the head of Adelaide's Matt Crouch.
Tall utility Mark Blicavs is also a likely inclusion, having sat out the trip to Perth to manage an ongoing back issue.
With skipper Joel Selwood fined by the match review panel on Monday for a rough conduct charge against West Coast's Sam Mitchell - less than a fortnight after the contentious Hawkins' ban - Scott said he had raised the issue of discipline with his players.
"We're no different from any other club - we want our players playing hard aggressive footy and sometimes that means you go close to the line," he said.
"But if you over-step it you pay a very big penalty and you run the risk of being penalised whereas some players in previous weeks haven't.
"That's just the nature of our disciplinary system within the AFL."
