GWS Giants are poised to regain co-captain Phil Davis, but expect to be without two other defenders on Saturday when they try to conquer their last remaining AFL mainland frontier.
Davis missed the Giants' past two games with a hamstring problem he suffered in the round-seven away clash with Fremantle.
However, another injury-prone key back Tim Mohr is expected to miss five games after suffering a hamstring injury last Sunday against the Western Bulldogs.
Fellow defender Matt Buntine was rated very unlikely to play in Saturday's clash with Adelaide after getting concussed against the Bulldogs.
It was a third case of concussion for Buntine.
GWS coach Leon Cameron said he was pretty confident Nick Haynes, the other Giants' back to get concussed last week, would be right to face the Crows at Adelaide Oval.
He said Davis had put his hand up to play against his former club after training well on Wednesday.
"We'll probably work through that over the next 24 hours to see how he pulls up," Cameron said.
"If there's absolutely any risks with him, we're not going to take it but, right now, you'd have to say he's a better chance of playing than not."
Cameron stressed the problems with Mohr and Buntine wouldn't put any pressure on the Giants to rush Davis back.
"We can't fall for that, because you just don't want to take that risk of having Phil re-injure something if he's not right," Cameron said.
"We're talking about some pretty quality forwards that he's got to be up against. We don't want to take a player in if he's 80 per cent."
South Australia is the only mainland state in which the Giants are yet to record a win after breaking their WA duck recently in Perth.
GWS have played four AFL games in SA, losing to Adelaide and Port at Football Park and Adelaide Oval.
"Those early years, we rolled out teams that probably weren't ready to compete against the Crows, who belted us a few times there," Cameron said.
"We probably weren't ready to take it up to them - we feel as though we've obviously progressed."
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