ADELAIDE forward James Podsiadly isn't likely to miss any football despite being subbed out of Monday night's NAB Challenge clash against Carlton with hip soreness.
The former Cat's night ended early in the second quarter with just three kicks and a goal to his name.
Podsiadly trained briefly on Thursday morning before leaving the track to watch the rest of the session with ice strapped to his hip.
Sanderson, who celebrated his 40th birthday on Thursday, said his key forward hadn't suffered any serious damage to his hip and would be available to face Greater Western Sydney in a practice match next Friday.
"He's fine, he probably shouldn't have even trained today really, but he only played a quarter and a bit on Monday night," Sanderson said.
"Classic hip pointer, so the one where you get a whack on the hip [and] it bruises up, seizes up pretty quickly.
"That lacked a little bit of mobility for him but he'll be fine, he'll play against GWS [Friday] week and then fingers crossed we get our best squad available for round one against Geelong."
Sanderson said the outlook was also positive for Taylor Walker, claiming the star forward was still on track for an early-season return.
On Tuesday Sanderson told AFL.com.au that Walker might not see AFL action until round 15, but later clarified that he was talking broadly.
The club still expects the 23-year-old to be back in the side early on.
"Tex is on target for an early-season return; it's very difficult for us to pinpoint an exact round," he said.
"There's a huge interest in this story and rightly so because he's one of our most important players but Tex will play when he's ready.
"There's been no setbacks, Tex is absolutely flying ... Tex is certainly targeting an early-season comeback."
Sanderson's birthday press conference was interrupted by the entire Adelaide playing group, who sang happy birthday to their coach and presented him with a Crows cake.
Once he'd recovered from the surprise, Sanderson said he had been pleased with the way his side had moved the football during the NAB Challenge, with a heavier emphasis on handball over kicking.
Sanderson would like to even up the Crows' handball-to-kick ratio in 2014; a tactic he said would increase the likelihood of Matt Crouch and Cam Ellis-Yolmen making their AFL debuts.
"When you have a look at how we've played over the last two years compared to the two NAB Challenge games ... we're moving the ball a bit differently, probably using a bit more handball," he said.
"That's just a bit of a teaser of what to expect from us early in the season.
"Some players that come in are just handballers, whether that's Matt Crouch or Cam Ellis-Yolmen – they handball more than they kick – and other guys that we select, say like a Lewis Johnston's more of a kicker.
"Sometimes it depends on what we go with at selection but I think you'll see some little tweaks on how we play early in the season."
Twitter: @AFL_Harry http://afl.to/harrythring
