Carlton coach Denis Pagan says star forward Brendan Fevola will play against Brisbane at the Gabba on Saturday night, despite coming frighteningly close to a season-ending knee injury.

Pagan experienced a huge scare when Fevola, the AFL's leading goalkicker this season, hyper extended his knee after flying for a mark against the Kangaroos last Friday night.

"That's an understatement," Pagan said.

"When you've seen all these people go down ... you think `Gee, I thought it was Brendan's turn,' but we were lucky and so was Brendan."

The full-forward has been cleared of structural damage.

Pagan said he had been rested from training early in the week as a precaution, but should have no problems taking his place against the Lions.

Meanwhile, the coach said the Blues could not afford to take any joy out of near-misses against West Coast and the Kangaroos in the past two rounds.

In both matches, Carlton played some good football and led for long periods, before being over-run.

"At the end of the day everybody judges you on wins and losses and we accept that," he said.

"We always have to do that.

"I do, I live by that, we want to win every time we go out, if we don't win we're disappointed.

"Look, you start talking about (honourable losses) and those are the quotes of a losing coach.

"We're realistic about it ... there are some positive things happening and really exciting glimpses of the future, but I can't hang my hat on that."

He said the late lapses were due to a failure to adhere to some football fundamentals, rather than evidence of a fitness deficit.

"It might have a little bit to do with knowing how to win, it might have a bit to do with self-belief, but it's not all that," Pagan said.

"Fundamentally we're doing a few things wrong and I'd prefer not to talk about (what they are)."

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