Forward Jaidyn Stephenson has earned a reprieve at Collingwood, while the Pies have opted for extra midfield grunt against St Kilda on Saturday. 

Stephenson looked sharp in the Pies' two-hour session at Olympic Park on Thursday and will join inside midfielder Rupert Wills in the line-up at the MCG.

Both Stephenson and Wills are yet to feature at AFL level in 2020.

"He's (Stephenson) definitely in our best mix when he's up and about and I think he's ready to go so we should expect to see him run around on Saturday," Buckley said.

"Rupe's done extremely well, his last month's been really strong. He was probably a little bit stiff to miss round one and was one of the players who came back in really good order off the isolation period."

Should Madgen miss, it is expected Chris Mayne or Will Hoskin-Elliott would assume some of his responsibilities in defence.

The Pies will again select Darcy Cameron to play a forward/ruck role with a fit-again Mason Cox needing to impress in a scratch match against the Saints' reserves on Saturday morning to push for a recall.

Ruckman Brodie Grundy trained fully – albeit in a lighter mode to normal – after a knock to his knee and will be fit to face the Saints.

"'Brodes' is good. Going down behind the bench is not a great sign when it comes up and the doc says we need to take him down (to the rooms), you never like that too much in the coaches' box," Buckley said.

"It was a bit of a knee on knee and a bit of bone bruising, but he was able to get through."

Adam Treloar will need to wait at least another week to return from a calf strain after re-joining full training in recent days.

The midfielder injured his calf on May 18 and next Friday's clash against his former side Greater Western Sydney will mark more than five weeks since the injury.

Tom Langdon showed the most promising signs yet from his long-term knee injury. The defender completed the full session and took part in the 15 minutes of match simulation, wearing a yellow hat to alert teammates to no contact.