Already seeking the right balance in a midfield without Dayne Beams, Collingwood will be forced to re-evaluate their options again after it emerged key recruit Levi Greenwood will miss the first month of the season, and likely more.
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Despite initial optimism around the prognosis, results from scans on Monday showed Greenwood had sustained a "slight fracture" in his right ankle and will need to stay off the foot for six weeks.
"Then after that, it will be however long it takes him to run again. So it will be six weeks plus," Collingwood football manager Neil Balme said on Monday.
"It's disappointing for him, but I'm sure he will overcome that."
An early timeline of the injury would have the 26-year-old missing at least the first four matches of the home-and-away season, and most likely games against Carlton (round five) and Geelong (round six) and possibly more, depending on how the injury reacts to a restart in training.
More news on the injury front centred on key defender Ben Reid, with the Pies moving to squash rumours he had suffered another injury setback.
Balme said the fitness staff was starting to manage Reid in the lead-up to round one after he successfully completed seven quarters of game time in VFL practice matches.
"There is so much talk about whether he is going to get up for round one. We are going to try and take that out of the equation," Balme said.
"Our issue with Reidy is to make sure he is ready for the season proper. He may get there for round one, but that is certainly not the main objective."
Greenwood sustained his injury when his ankle got caught in an awkward position as he tackled Western Bulldogs forward Jarrad Grant in the third quarter of Saturday night's NAB Challenge game at Etihad Stadium.
The former North Melbourne player arrived at Collingwood last October as part of a five-club mega deal that centred around himself, former Pies star Beams, Mitch Clark, Travis Varcoe and Heritier Lumumba.
Greenwood signed a lucrative four-year deal on the back of a career-best season with the Roos, in which he averaged 25 disposals and developed into a goalkicking midfielder, booting 16 goals last year, although the Pies had marked him to play a more defensive role in its on-ball brigade early this season.
Just how concerned the Pies should be about their pre-season campaign as a whole, following their performance in Saturday's 59-point loss to the Bulldogs two weeks out from round one, has emerged as a key talking point out of the NAB Challenge.
