ADELAIDE coach Neil Craig says his side is facing an early test of depth as it prepares to go into round one without as many as five first-choice players.
The Crows' injury curse began just a few weeks into pre-season training when NAB AFL Rising Star runner-up Andy Otten suffered a season-ending knee injury.
Soon after, Brad Symes and Brad Moran were also forced to go under the knife after failing to fully recuperate from post-season knee surgery.
Forwards Brett Burton (knee), Jason Porplyzia (pelvis) and Chris Knights (foot) have joined the list of walking wounded over the past few weeks, while midfielder Nathan van Berlo remains in doubt for the season opener with stress fractures in his back.
Craig admitted the club's injury-interrupted pre-season was becoming a concern.
"Certainly Chris (Knights) will be in question for round one and Brett Burton (also). Jason Porplyzia is progressing and hopefully can start to get on the track with ball work in a week's time," he said on Thursday.
"Nathan van Berlo's been a long-term injury. Those back [injuries] can hang on and you've got Brad Symes and Brad Moran with knee injuries. The worrying ones are the long-term ones because they've missed a fair bit of training, but that's what we've got.
"We've prided ourselves on trying to build our squad and get some depth in it and we're about to find out [how that stacks up]. The reality is we could go into the first game with four or five players from last year not available, but there's nothing we can do about it."
Adelaide's once formidable forward line has been the hardest hit.
The Crows have included second-round draft pick Jack Gunston in the team to take on Collingwood in Alice Springs on Friday night and Craig said he would continue to experiment with forward line options over the next three weeks.
"We know Patrick Dangerfield can play up forward. He did that last year, so that always remains an option and we know Scott Thompson can go forward," he said.
"Young Jared Petrenko showed some signs last year of being able to play up there and we'll have a look at him as well because I think Jared's ready to play AFL football.
"He's got some strong opposition [to break into the] defence, but he's a hard little player now. He's had his best pre-season ever and he's in good form, so I'm keen to have a good look at him as well. We just need to continue to explore those options."
