Adelaide captain Simon Goodwin is having to manage back problems as the Crows enter the most important phase of their AFL season.

And fellow veteran Andrew McLeod is fighting the latest flare-up of a longtime knee complaint that may yet require surgery to clean out the overworked joint.

The Crows looked a tired and sore bunch when returning from the weekend defeat in Brisbane, where neither Goodwin nor McLeod excelled - a recurring theme of the past few weeks.

After storming starts to 2008, Crows football operations manager John Reid confirmed both were dealing with significant wear and tear.

"Simon's got a little bit of a problem with his back, nothing that's match threatening and the break is a good time for him to manage that and give it a bit of a spell - I'd put it in the wear and tear basket rather than a chronic type injury," Reid said.

"Andrew as we know has really managed that (his knee) extremely well and the club's managed that extremely well over the years, it hasn't caused us a lot of grief.

"The last two or three weeks he's had a bit of a problem with it again, so we're just re-assessing what we're doing, how we manage and how we go about it.

"He didn't train last week, and if you asked Macca he'd be saying it's a nice time to have a break."

McLeod, who has fought a painful knee ever since 1998, will visit a specialist this week for a check-up to determine whether or not surgery is required.

Such a procedure would be likely to result in several weeks out of action.

"It's just a matter of re-assessing the management, we'll get him back to the specialist, double check, see how it's all going, we've got time to do that during the week," Reid said.

"We don't regard it as major but you never know what the specialist will come back with."

Reid was at pains to make clear that neither the club nor the players wanted the niggles to be considered excuses for the recent downturn in performance, saying: "They haven't played that brilliantly over the past few weeks, but I don't think they'd be using that as an excuse."

Nevertheless, it is a decent-sized headache for a Crows side caught in the scrap for a spot somewhere in the middle of the top eight following two consecutive losses.

Goodwin and McLeod will both be desperate to regain some physical soundness in time Adelaide's pivotal next fixture, a Friday night encounter with Geelong at AAMI Stadium in a fortnight.

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