Jeremy Howe will barely train this week and is prepared to play in pain if it means he gets to face West Coast in Saturday's Grand Final at the MCG.

The Collingwood defender has a sore left ankle from an incident in the third quarter of the Magpies' barnstorming 39-point preliminary final win over Richmond on Friday night.

Despite a light week planned on the training track, Howe said he had no doubts he'd line up in the decider against the Eagles.

"I can't imagine I'll be running around training [on Tuesday]," Howe said on Monday.

"We'll have main training on Thursday, so I'll probably push it back until then to give it every chance to settle down.

"Given the [nature of)] the injury, it probably needs a couple more days.

"But I'm extremely confident that it will be fine. We've just got to give it a chance to settle."

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Howe has already flirted with a potentially finals-wrecking injury, having missed the last four games of the home-and-away season with a corked thigh that simply wouldn't mend.

He ended up needing an arthroscopic procedure to drain the deep hematoma he picked up in round 19 against Richmond. 

And he admitted on Monday he dodged another bullet when his ankle got caught up in a tackle laid by Richmond's Daniel Rioli.

"I think it had the potential to be a serious injury with that movement, but scans ended up clearing me of any major damage," he said.

"That probably put my mind at ease. It's just a matter of getting a bit of the swelling out of the ankle and getting the mobility and movement back."

Nearly all footballers know what it's like to play with a degree of discomfort, and it's something Howe is ready to do if it comes to that by the end of the week.

"That will be fine if there's a little bit of pain ... it's nothing an injection won't help," he said.

"But best-case scenario, it will be fine.

"I'm confident I will be able to train on Thursday and get it moving ... Saturday is still a long time away."



Howe leaves the field after injuring his ankle in Collingwood's Preliminary Final win over Richmond. Image: AFL Photos.