Collingwood star forward Anthony Rocca's hopes of playing in the club's AFL season opener against Adelaide next weekend appear to be all but gone.

The 31-year-old, who missed the second half of last season with an ankle injury, failed to line up for the Magpies' VFL side in their practice match against Bendigo on Friday.

It means he has not played a single warm-up game ahead of next Saturday night's clash with the Crows at the MCG.

But Magpies football manager Geoff Walsh refused to rule out Rocca playing in round one, after he trained strongly with the rest of the squad earlier in the day.

"He didn't play but he trained with our main session today and moved pretty well," Walsh said.

"We were pretty happy with the way he pulled up, we had a pretty hard session because our boys had the weekend off."

Four AFL-listed players - Paul Medhurst, Brad Dick, John McCarthy and Anthony Corrie - made it through the VFL game unscathed.

The AFL has granted numerous other players permission to play in practice matches with their VFL affiliate sides on Saturday, as they seek extra conditioning ahead of the regular season.

St Kilda skipper Nick Riewoldt is one of many Saints set to line up for Sandringham, with others including Matt Maguire and Steven Baker.

They will be playing a Werribee team expected to include a host of Western Bulldogs, including star forward Robert Murphy, Scott Welsh and Tom Williams.

North Melbourne decided against fielding tough defender Daniel Pratt, who missed two pre-season games after receiving a chest injury in the opening round of the NAB Cup, in North Ballarat's side on Saturday.

But the club still hopes he will be ready for the round one clash with Melbourne.

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