As the intrigue around his future at Adelaide grows, Geelong will take a watch-and-wait approach in regard to gun midfielder Patrick Dangerfield.

Dangerfield is out of contract at the end of 2015, and will become a free agent. The Cats have long been linked with Dangerfield, who hails from the nearby Moggs Creek.

Speculation has bubbled further after Dangerfield was overlooked for the position of Crows captain, with the club opting for key forward Taylor Walker to replace Nathan van Berlo.

Geelong football manager Steve Hocking said that he felt for the 24-year-old, who was in for a long year under the microscope.

"I feel for the guy. He's going to have a tough season ahead of him," Hocking told SEN on Friday morning.

"From our point of view he's an Adelaide player. That's what he is. Until that changes, everyone's just got to watch how he plays."

"He's not our player. So I'm not going to be engaged in that one."

Hocking emphasised that decisions on expensive free agents would be a team effort.

"We would sit with our key decision makers, like our player leadership group. We'd work through it, and whether or not that can be accommodated."

Hocking also said that injury setbacks to Steve Johnson (foot), Mitch Clark (calf) and Nathan Vardy (knee) were not major headaches.

The Cats revealed on Thursday that all three had endured recent hiccups, but that the fortnight or so layoff for the injury-prone tall Vardy would be the most significant disruption.

"It's quite frustrating for him," Hocking said.

"He actually sprained it pre-Christmas. He's just had a bit of swelling come up in the knee."

"Hopefully they just remove a bit of scar tissue, but most of the swelling's subsided now.

"Hopefully it only delays him by a couple of weeks."

The issue with Johnson's troublesome foot has meant that his scheduled period of leave of four to five days in late January has been moved forward to now, with the playmaker to train through that period.

"He's been doing most of the work - slightly modified to what the rest of the group are doing."

"It just flared up in the last couple of days."

Hocking explained that Clark's calf strain was partly a result of the Cats learning about the limitations of the former Lion and Demon's body.

"It's really about us understanding what we can and can't do with him. He'll only miss a handful of sessions. He's the one who's completed the most work."

"A couple of sessions off probably won't hurt him, to be truthful."