Andrew McLeod will look to Adelaide's round 15 encounter against Collingwood for his return to AFL action following knee surgery.

A clean-out procedure to alleviate pain in his battered right knee turned up more wear and tear than even McLeod expected, but Crows coach Neil Craig said the dual Norm Smith medallist would aim to miss only one match, against Geelong next Friday night.

"His knee hasn't blown up, so probably the best scenario would be for Andrew to play against Collingwood," Craig said.

"They (surgeons) did a few more things in there than we thought, but from a long-term perspective and given the timing, it was probably the best thing to happen; to clean the knee out and to enable him to come back hopefully pain free."

Another injury victim, Trent Hentschel, may yet play in 2008 despite suffering the setback of an ankle complaint just when he looked likely to resume for the Crows following a serious knee/leg injury that has kept him out since late 2006.

"It looks like Trent's ankle isn't as bad as first thought ... he's not going to play this week, but hopefully he'll be available in the next week or two," Craig said.

"Even if its a two or three week injury, he was that close to playing AFL footy (that it doesn't end his season).

"It's a setback for him obviously, but certainly his season in the AFL is very much alive - from a selection point of view, he's very much in my thinking."

Craig took stock of a first half of 2008 that has proven far more successful than many predicted, though it was tempered somewhat by a pair of losses leading into the break, the second a particularly uninspired and defensive display against Brisbane.

"It has been an interesting year so far where there was probably, initially, very little expectation," he said.

"Now there is some more expectation around and it's good for our playing group to have to experience that.

"People will ask `well why didn't we win that game', or `what's going on', we welcome that.

"Our draw in the next few weeks, particularly up against Geelong, Collingwood, Port Adelaide and Sydney (is difficult).

"Just in that block of games well find out a lot more.

"The game against the Brisbane Lions, particularly after half time, was not what we wanted and well get challenged again in the next few weeks."

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