ADELAIDE utility Scott Stevens will miss a third straight week with concussion after failing to join his teammates for training on Wednesday.

Stevens copped a hit to the face in the Crows' round-one loss to Fremantle at Subiaco.

The former Sydney Swan completed last week's main session but pulled out of the side to take on Melbourne after experiencing more ill effects associated with the concussion.

Ironically, Stevens was also concussed against Freo at Subiaco in round three last season and missed the next game.

On Wednesday, midfielder David Mackay said Stevens still wasn't feeling 100 per cent.

"Stevo just seems to pull up really badly from concussion and heavy knocks. The same thing happened last year when he got that knock early in the season," Mackay said.

"It seemed to knock him around a bit for the next few weeks. I guess it's just something that, with his make-up, his body struggles to deal with."

Patrick Dangerfield (neck) and Kurt Tippett (ankle) were also excused from training with the main group but are still considered a chance to play against Carlton at AAMI Stadium on Saturday.

Nathan Bock (hamstring), Trent Hentschel (knee) and Nathan van Berlo (back) have already been ruled out.

In better news, defender Graham Johncock completed the session and looks set to return after missing the opening three games with a broken thumb.

The Crows have won their past seven games against Carlton, but remain winless after three rounds this season.

They dropped three straight games between rounds six and eight last year, before setting up a fifth-place finish on the back of seven consecutive wins in the second half of the season.

Mackay said the players were confident they could recover from the slow start.

"We have had periods in the past when we've lost a few games in a row and been in a bit of a rough patch, but we've always managed to get out of them," he said.

"We're certainly very confident that by sticking together and working hard [the results will come]."

Adelaide finished last weekend's game against Melbourne with only 18 fit players, prompting coach Neil Craig to call for the introduction of a substitute system.

Mackay described the game as exhausting, but said the club's underdone players would benefit from the tough hit-out.

"The guys who are running out onto the field, although they're a lot of the same guys [to last season] have had a limited preparation. It's not an excuse, but they're slowly getting back to where we need them to get to," he said.

"We had a match on the weekend in which the guys had a tough workload with limited rotations, so that's going to hold them in really good stead for the weeks to come."

Carlton skipper Chris Judd will return to bolster his side this week, after serving a three-match ban for eye-gouging Brisbane Lion Michael Rischitelli in last year's elimination final at the Gabba.

In the past, Rob Shirley has tagged Judd but, given Shirley's retirement, Mackay said it was time for a new face to have a crack at shutting down the Brownlow Medallist.

"Chris Schmidt did the job on Judd in the pre-season, so we'd be very confident that Chris could do that role again and we've also got Brent Reilly, who has been doing those jobs each week.

"We're confident that either of those two guys could step up and do the job on Chris Judd."