Adelaide forward Kurt Tippett will return from injury against Gold Coast, the AFL club he is rumoured to be joining in 2013.

The Queensland-born spearhead has missed the past three games with a hamstring strain, a period coinciding with revelations of an out clause in his Crows contract.

The clause is believed to ensure Tippett can return to Gold Coast when his Adelaide contract expires at the end of next season.

"I'm not going to deny I'm a beach boy at heart, I do get homesick at times and at some stage during my life I think I will return to the Gold Coast," Tippett said in a video message on the Crows' website last week.

Adelaide's caretaker coach Mark Bickley said Tippett would play against the Suns at Metricon Stadium on Saturday.

"Kurt will play this week," Bickley told reporters on Wednesday.

"We will pick the side tonight so I have probably let that out that I want to play Kurt, that is my intention."

Bickley believed Adelaide's quicker ball movement in recent weeks would help the 203cm-tall forward.

"The way we have moved the ball the last three weeks will be enormously beneficial for Kurt," he said.

"One of the things that he has had a lot trouble with is teams being able to drop numbers back, and they are able to do that if you don't move the ball quickly.

"So we have a belief that if we continue to move the ball quickly, we might be able to get it into Kurt a bit quicker and let him compete one on one - which when we have seen him do that, he has been a really dangerous player."

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP