Adelaide captain Mark Ricciuto says he won't return from a debilitating back injury for at least four weeks.
Ricciuto quashed speculation he would retire after a horror series of injuries in the past 18 months that has kept him out of the game.
"I still have a bit in me yet, I reckon," Ricciuto told reporters on Monday.
The 31-year-old Crow veteran is recovering from a small tear in a back disc sustained during preseason training.
Last month he had an epidural to ease the pain but suffered complications and was confined to bed with an acutely sore neck.
The latest setback follows hamstring tendinitis last year and a rare virus that ruled him out of the finals.
Ricciuto said his recovery would be slow and he had only started to resume jogging recently, but he was determined to continue as captain.
He said he would take his return one step at a time and dismissed suggestions his age had played a part in his injury woes.
"It is not like I am pulling hamstrings or pulling calves or doing typical injuries of an old footballer," he said.
"I am not too fussed about that at this stage.
"I certainly was very fit in the preseason ... I know I can still run and still do all the things that I need to.
"I think I have had a couple of unlucky ones so far."
Ricciuto said he was frustrated but felt positive about his playing future.
"You just have to be realistic and understand your injury," he said.
"I am fine with it at the moment. I know what I have to accomplish over the next four weeks to get back."
The Crows lost their season opener against Essendon in Adelaide on Sunday by 31 points and Ricciuto said the club had a lot of work to do.
"I thought a lot of execution wasn't good, whether it was goalkicking or hitting targets up forward or even a lot of our handballing wasn't great yesterday," he said,
"We have done of lot of work on that over the summer so that was fairly disappointing."
