Wagner, 22, dislocated his fibula in the first half of the Demons' JLT Community series win over the Western Bulldogs at the Whitten Oval on Saturday. He was seen on crutches after the match.

While the dislocation was diagnosed on match-day, the Queenslander was assessed on Monday to check whether he had done any further damage. Thankfully for Melbourne that wasn't the case, but the club's general manager of football operations Josh Mahoney told Fairfax Media that Wagner would still miss the rest of the pre-season, and possibly the early rounds of the year.

"The injury will take some time to settle and then to gradually build up [fitness] so we're still looking at a four to six week injury as to when he returns to play," Mahoney said.

A mature-age rookie, Wagner played 14 senior games last year in what was his first season at the club. He was elevated to the primary list at season's end, and received a two-year contract extension.

The Dees face Carlton at Casey Fields on Saturday. Mahoney said a group of players including Jack Watts, Neville Jetta and Michael Hibberd were all in the mix to play against the Blues. None of that trio played against the Dogs, but all trained at a session on Saturday morning.

Meanwhile the Bulldogs say they are yet to determine the severity of ruckman Jordan Roughead's hamstring injury, suffered in the same game. It was initially feared Roughead had hurt his knee after landing awkwardly following a ruck contest late in the first quarter, but the club has confirmed the injury is hamstring related, with further details likely on Tuesday morning.

"The medicos are working through that at the minute, but there is some pain in the hamstring," Dogs development coach Chris Maple said in Ballarat on Monday during the club's community camp.

"We haven't determined how long [he'll be sidelined] he is sore and we'll find out in the next couple of days."

Collingwood forward Jamie Elliott will also miss a couple of training sessions after suffering a minor ankle strain during a session on Monday. Elliott returned to football on Thursday night after missing all of 2016 with a back injury, but this latest setback is considered very minor.