Adelaide veteran Andrew McLeod has vowed to play on amid fears a knee "blow up" may have decided his AFL future.

The injury has forced McLeod, who turns 34 next month, out of Adelaide's side to play Port Adelaide on Sunday.

McLeod had surgery on his right knee after round 11 and returned to action last weekend.

But the 340-gamer suffered swelling in the troublesome joint, ruling him out of Sunday's showdown.

Crows coach Neil Craig conceded the setback was not a good sign for McLeod's future.

"For it to blow up after one game is not a good sign," Craig said on Friday.

"He's still very positive about it ... his attitude is superb, he's committed to the year before he makes any decision and he'll play the year out to the best of his ability."

Craig said McLeod's knee could decide the dual premiership player's future.

"That is more information that he's got, that after that sort of operation that it's still not 100 per cent," Craig said.

"He's a really professional-thinking, high-performance athlete and he's got a lot of pride in his performance.

"He knows exactly what he needs to do to be able to prepare to play at the level he wants to play at, he's not interested in clocking up games.

"So I have great confidence that he will make good decisions when it comes time to make them."

McLeod releases his biography next week, which will touch on his fractured relationship with teammate and fellow 300-gamer Tyson Edwards, who retired earlier this year.

McLeod and Edwards bitterly fell out in 2006, culminating with their wives clashing in public after a club champion awards night.

"The way Andrew goes about things, he'll put things on the table," Craig said.

"The obvious one will be the McLeod-Edwards situation, what is being written about that.

"I'm certainly not privy to that, but let's say there is some information in the book about it, that is fine, that will be in the public arena, people will have discussion about it, they'll have an opinion about it."

Craig praised McLeod and Edwards for remaining teammates despite the feud.

"It could have been the opposite to that," Craig said.

"One or both of those players playing 30 games at another club - and what a waste of careers that would have been.

"The fact that both players will finish their careers (with the Crows) ... is the bigger issue for me rather than maybe lack of harmony which happens in every walk of life I'm afraid - it's not just about footy clubs ... it's called being human beings."

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