As the Cats cross their fingers for the return of several key players, coach Chris Scott is also hopeful one of their very best, mercurial playmaker Steve Johnson, will also emerge from his early-season funk in time to energise the club's season.

The Cats face a big challenge Friday night against one of the in-form teams of the competition, Collingwood, at the MCG and Scott backed Johnson, who is out of form, to snap out of a rare "lean patch" and prove a point in the next few weeks where the team's mission to stay in finals contention will be tested.

To further assist the cause, the Cats are hopeful Mathew Stokes, Mitch Clark, Andrew Mackie and Rhys Stanley will all be available to take on the second-placed Pies. However it emerged on Tuesday that James Kelly is likely to miss a month with the nasty "ruptured testicle" he suffered against Richmond last week.

Johnson is down in many key statistical areas across the first five weeks, including disposals (from 25.8 in 2014 to 19), tackles (5.2 to 2.8) and clearances (3.9 to 1.8); although factors that must be taken into account include a change in role and the fact he played as the substitute in round four.

But the numbers appear only to confirm the general observations of most experts – that the soon-to-be 32-year-old is lacking his usual impact, despite the fact he had nine disposals and two goals in a decent cameo when he came out of the green vest against the Roos.

He also kicked an important goal in the game against Richmond – although was criticised for several turnovers – and his performance against the Hawks in round one, in which he had 27 disposals and was one of the Cats' best players, has gone overlooked by some.

"[There is] probably bit of a focus on him now because he is a little bit older," Scott said. 
"If he was going through a lean patch when he was in his prime, I think that all anyone would be saying is that he is in a patch and he will get through it.

"He is still a valuable member of the team at the moment and I'm looking forward to seeing the way he plays in the next couple of weeks, next couple of months."

Scott said Johnson – a player for whom GWS showed significant interest in during the trade period – had yet to hit the peak of his powers this year after a pre-season interrupted by a foot injury.

"He is a very proud player and he'll be doing everything he can to improve," Scott said. 
 
"I still have great confidence in him that he will get through it."

In addition to the loss of Kelly, and with Jimmy Bartel still sidelined with a knee injury, the Cats are set to lose Billie Smedts for an extended period with a broken collarbone and ruckman Hamish McIntosh has also sustained another injury, this time a calf.

Scott revealed McIntosh had been "very close" to playing his first senior game this season before the injury, but now faced a recovery that he feared could be worse than the usual three-week timeframe.

Speaking to the club's website on Tuesday, Kelly spoke about the pain of his injury, rating it "up the top" of a scale from one to 10.

"I've been told that it's close to childbirth, but I can't say that too much seeing my wife just gave birth. But yeah, it was pretty painful," Kelly said.

"I remember thinking 'it's OK, I've been hit in the nuts before. It'll go away'," he said, recalling the incident.

"And then after a little while when it didn't go away I thought maybe something was wrong."

Kelly said he had received amusing feedback since the injury.

"Once you say you're all right then jokes just come flying – 'you were going flat knacker' and all that sort of stuff," he said.

"If it happened to someone else, I'd be all over them, so I have to cop it on the chin."