Hawthorn onballer Chance Bateman is the latest key midfielder under a fitness cloud heading into this weekend's AFL preliminary finals, after a training mishap on Tuesday.

He joins St Kilda dynamo Luke Ball, Western Bulldogs midfield gun Adam Cooney and teammate Trent Croad with question marks over their availability.

Bateman rolled his ankle at the start of the Hawks' training session on Tuesday and was unable to complete any drills.

Forced from the track, he will now be assessed later in the week as the Hawks prepare for the MCG clash.

Hawthorn captain Sam Mitchell was confident Bateman would be fit to line up against the Saints but agreed he would need to pass a fitness test later this week.

"I think he will be okay," Mitchell said.

"He rolled his ankle, came off and had it re-strapped and there is no point going back out there and re-aggravating it or anything like that.

"So he'll be assessed over the next couple of days, but I think he'll be okay.

"He'd started the session and then just went over on the ankle a little bit."

Key defender Croad, who was likely to get the key defensive role on St Kilda's star forward Nick Riewoldt, also failed to take part in training as he battles a bruised foot.

But Mitchell said he should also be available.

"He's done everything right so far," Mitchell said.

"He'll do a fitness test, probably on Thursday.

"We've still got a few days up our sleeve, thankfully we had the week off.

"He's looking pretty good, he's got that Kiwi blood he tells us all about, quick healing powers and all that sort of stuff."

St Kilda have their own injury concerns with key midfielder Luke Ball struggling to overcome a hamstring injury.

Ball has missed the club's past six games, although encouragingly he completed Tuesday's light training session.

But Saints coach Ross Lyon said there was no guarantee Ball would return this weekend, even if he made it through training for the rest of the week.

"If he keeps ticking the boxes, the medical team will make a call and the player will make a call and then, ultimately, the match committee will make a call, so we've got a little bit to get through," Lyon said.

Fellow Saints midfielder Lenny Hayes, who experienced back spasms during the warm-up for last weekend's match against Collingwood, failed to join Tuesday's training session.

But Hayes said before the session he did not have any doubt that he would be able to play against the Hawks.

"It's just one of those things that is just a maintenance issue a little bit," Hayes said.

"As I said, I got through the game really well and I'll train this week and I'll be available on the weekend."

The Western Bulldogs have tried to allay fears Cooney will miss their clash with Geelong on Friday night.

Cooney has picked up a virus and is also suffering from knee tendonitis.

He missed Monday night's All Australian awards and Tuesday's training session.

The Bulldogs have ordered their No.1 on-baller to rest up at home and stay away from his team-mates, admitting his head cold is contagious. But they claim he is a definite starter.

"He'll be playing on Friday night - 100 per cent, guaranteed," assistant coach Leon Cameron said.

"It's not as if he's been bed-ridden for three or four days. He'll be over it by tomorrow sometime hopefully.

"You don't want to take a player into a final especially against Geelong at 90 per cent because they'll be exposed but he'll be ready to go.

"... He has got a little patella tendonitis but four or five players at each club have that so he's fine."

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP