Voss provides injury update on numerous Blues, including Sam Docherty's shot at a finals miracle

Carlton coach Michael Voss has provided an injury update on numerous key players ahead of his side’s Elimination Final clash with Brisbane.

The Blues will have to make a call on as many as eight or nine players for the final, including key pieces Charlie Curnow, Harry McKay, Tom De Koning and Mitch McGovern.

Voss named those four in particular as players more likely than not to return.

“There’s probably two parts in it and we tend to lump them into one pile, but it’s important to look at them all differently,” Voss told SEN Breakfast.

“The reality is that of the players that didn’t play, there’s probably four or five that have already done a heap of work. They’ve already played a significant amount of football and just missed one or two games.

“That’s Harry McKay, Charlie Curnow, Mitch McGovern and Zac Williams and those types who have played quite a fair bit of footy.

“And then we’ve got some of the other guys who we have to make decisions on as the week progresses.

“That’s Sam Docherty, that’s Adam Cerra, that’s also Tom De Koning as well. We don’t need to make any decisions right now. What we will do is take the week of training and look at where they’re at and make some calls based on what we need to carry in.

“All we need to know is that the players who go out there will be fit and ready to go.”

Docherty hasn’t played since tearing his ACL in Opening Round against the Lions at the Gabba, but has pushed hard to be ready for finals despite the injury usually requiring a full year away from the game.

Voss says he would be comfortable taking the risk with the veteran, if he is indeed ready to go – but bringing in a number of players fresh from injuries is also a factor.

“He’s progressing really, really well. I would anticipate he will roll in on Monday and say he’s ready to go," he said of Docherty.

“It’s a pretty complex thing to work through though and it’s probably made a little bit harder given we’ve got other players who haven’t played a lot of footy of late as well.

“We’ve got to throw that all in before we make a final decision. Docherty is really appreciative of that and understands the circumstances.

“My information throughout this whole period of time is that if he’s ready to play, it’s earlier than we anticipated but his recovery has gone really well, the medical team and high performance team have gone to work, he looks great on the track and is doing his work.

“And he’s just this unique human being with this ability to get out there and perform off a limited preparation and when I came in in 2022 he’d hardly done a hell of a lot his recovery from cancer and he set his sights on Round 1.

“He had some interruptions in the process, I was pretty black and white on what was needed to get to the line, but he came in and performed really well off a low preparation and he was a real pro. Some history plays a part in this, not just what’s going on now.”

The Blues will hold an open training session at Ikon Park on Saturday with fans set to get a closer look ahead of the Elimination Final.

The clash with the Lions takes place at the Gabba on Saturday, September 7 at 7:30pm AEST.