Forward Jared Petrenko has been ruled out of making a return from injury against Gold Coast.

Petrenko sustained a shoulder injury in Adelaide’s Round 11 loss to Sydney. The lively forward completed Wednesday’s main training session, but coach Brenton Sanderson said Petrenko wouldn’t be risked at Metricon Stadium on Saturday.

“Jared trained fully today, but he won’t play this week. It was a sprained AC joint and he just needs one more week,” Sanderson said on Wednesday.

Sanderson predicted “a couple of changes” to the team that last played against Richmond nearly a fortnight ago. Defender Brent Reilly, who was omitted for the Tigers clash, didn’t play for Sturt last weekend because of a back complaint, but is available for selection. Graham Johncock also struggled with a back injury in the bye weekend, limited to eight possessions for SANFL club Port Magpies.

In-form defender Richard Tambling and young midfielders Jarryd Lyons, Mitch Grigg, Brad Crouch, Aidan Riley and Sam Kerridge are among the players pressing for selection. Sanderson said players would be assessed on a combination of playing form and training form over the break.

“We’ve got to make a call on a couple of players who missed out last game and, unfortunately, we’ve still got some players out of form. We’d like to settle the side down. It’s just a matter of getting that mix right,” he said.

“Sometimes, you can have a break and freshen them up mentally and physically to get a better response. For a large percentage of our group, the bye came at a good time. They were able to freshen up some niggles and switch off for a few days. We still trained really hard through the break. We’ll look to get a bit of an advantage with some fitness work.

“You try to look at their training form. The boys have trained really well. They’re saying the right things and look really sharp. We’re looking forward to the last 10 games of the home and away season.”