Nathan Buckley realises the dangers of bringing in three players returning from soft tissue injuries, but is set to roll the dice for Collingwood's top-of-the-table clash against West Coast on Saturday at the MCG.
The Pies could bring in up to four players to face the equal ladder-leaders, with Ben Reid, Alan Toovey and Heath Shaw to return from injury and ruckman Cameron Wood firmly in the mix.
Reid is poised to return from a quad injury that has sidelined him since round eight, while Toovey and Shaw have missed two games with calf complaints.
All three trained at Gosch's Paddock on Wednesday.
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Buckley said the dangers of bringing in three players recovering from soft tissue injuries had been considered, but added he was keen to strengthen the Magpies' defence.
"It helps bolster our defence. They're clearly three very important players to us," Buckley said.
"When you've got players of that talent and competiveness and we know they're going to have an impact, you're more comfortable bringing three fresh players in ... especially against a very good West Coast offence.
"They're ready to go and ready to have an impact."
Reid has been the biggest injury concern of the trio, given his past issues with quad complaints.
Buckley said the Pies had made inroads into ensuring the problem didn't reoccur.
"We had a little bit of a look at running gaits, power curves through his kicking," he said.
"Reidy's gone through that process, as all of our players do, and we think we've rebuilt him.
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"He's done a power of work to be robust and fix a mechanical weakness that has [affected] his quaddies over the last 12 months or so.
"If there's any more boxes to be ticked, we can't find them."
Wood presents another selection dilemma as the Pies debate using one or two ruckman against the West Coast combination of Dean Cox and Nic Naitanui.
Darren Jolly and Wood have played together just once this season - in round three against Carlton - and could be paired up again, with Buckley declaring the Chris Dawes back-up option isn't a guarantee despite being favoured in the first half of the season.
"We've probably got two No.1 ruckman. Jolls we see as a better option for us at the moment," he said.
"Woody's working to be that No.1 ruckman and take that mantle so there's competition there."
Scott Pendlebury and Alan Didak ran on Wednesday at training, and while they won't face the Eagles, the Pies are pleased with their progress although the latter needs to work on his lateral movement before becoming a selection consideration.
Jennifer Witham is a reporter for AFL Media. Follow her on Twitter @AFL_JenWitham.
