Geelong star Jimmy Bartel expects to play against North Melbourne next Sunday despite his initial thought he'd broken his arm in Friday night's AFL loss to St Kilda.

Bartel bore the brunt of two players falling across his left arm late at the MCG, and on Sunday said he first feared a break.

"I did. I heard a pretty loud crack as the two boys landed on it," he told the Seven Network.

"But I looked at and it looked all right but it was pretty tender.

"I was happy I got my arm out from underneath those two."

The Cats said Bartel had hyper-extended his elbow, and the Brownlow medallist said the injury had improved to the point he was confident of playing the Kangaroos at Skilled Stadium.

"Yeah. Last night it was pretty stiff and sore, but I woke up this morning and I've got a fair bit of movement in it now," he said.

"It just swelled up like if you roll an ankle, and once you get that out you can move around a bit."

As Bartel left the ground nursing his arm, he was given a nudge in the shoulder by St Kilda's Sam Fisher.

But Bartel played down the incident on Sunday, although he would not repeat his retort to Fisher.

"I probably shouldn't repeat it ... it was all good gamesmanship," said Bartel, who also had stitches inserted above his right eye after an earlier clash.

Geelong should be significantly bolstered this week, as midfielders Joel Corey (knee) and James Kelly (illness) should return, along with star half-forward Paul Chapman (hamstring soreness).

Tall forward Tom Hawkins and ruckman Brad Ottens are also close to returning from foot problems but defender Harry Taylor is likely to be assessed this week after he suffered a cut foot against the Saints.

Collingwood are hopeful small forward Brad Dick escaped serious injury when he hurt his shoulder in Saturday night's win over Sydney at ANZ Stadium.

Dick landed heavily on his left shoulder, and Magpie team-mates Scott Pendlebury and Dane Swan said on Sunday the 22-year-old had escaped suffered a "stinger" and was hopeful of playing West Coast on Saturday night.

But Collingwood football manager Geoff Walsh was more cautious, and said the club needed to wait for assessment given Dick's history of shoulder problems.

"We'll just wait until the dust settles and look at it tomorrow," Walsh said.

"We don't know how bad it is given he's had some shoulder troubles in the past."

Sydney are hopeful of regaining full-forward Daniel Bradshaw and running defender Tadhg Kennelly, both from knee soreness, for next Sunday's game against Richmond.

But defender Craig Bolton (achilles) and ruck Mark Seaby (ankle) are still a month away from returns.

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