Adelaide forward Scott Welsh will miss the NAB Cup pre-season series after suffering a stress fracture in his left leg.

Welsh, the Crows’ leading goalkicker in 2005, will have to stay off his foot for another fortnight before starting a rehabilitation program geared to have him ready for the premiership season.

Crows training services manager Trevor Jaques said the stress fracture was relatively minor and it was expected that Welsh should be able to aim to play by the opening round.

”Scott will have to keep the weight off the leg for a couple of weeks but he should then be right to get into rehabilitation and conditioning,” Jaques said. “He’s had a pretty solid pre-season so far so hopefully he won’t take long to get going again.”

Welsh kicked 58 goals in 23 AFL games last season to win the club’s goalkicking award for the third time.