NATHAN Buckley says discussion of Collingwood's injury crisis is "overblown" as the Magpies attempt to turn around their run of poor form.

The club has lost four of its past five games and will need to beat Gold Coast on Sunday to shore up a finals spot, but continues to be hit with a raft of injuries, with Jordan De Goey (hamstring) and Isaac Quaynor (foot) the latest casualties.

Darcy Moore, Jordan De Goey and Ben Reid all walked laps at training on friday.



They join the likes of Darcy Moore (hamstring), Tom Langdon (knee), James Aish (shoulder), Daniel Wells (knee) as senior regulars out, with nearly half of the club's list unavailable through injury or suspension this week.

FULL INJURY LIST Who's ruled out and who's a test?

But with Taylor Adams returning from a hamstring strain, and Jordan Roughead cleared to face the Suns after last week's concussion, Buckley said it was not a large-scale issue.

Taylor Adams trained strongly on Friday.



"I think that it's been overblown in some shape or form. We've got some soft-tissue concerns but I don't think ours are any more major than others," Buckley said on Friday.

"We've got some other boys who have had either some knee or hip issues, and some other non-footy related ones. We've got some access to some more boys this week and hopefully that builds over the next month."

Buckley said the range of injuries afflicting the Pies meant a full-scale review, which has been mooted given the impact the absences have had on Collingwood's fortunes, was not a necessity.

"I'd encourage anyone to look a bit deeper. We'd love to have 45 players available all the time and that's utopia, and that's what we're heading towards," he said.

"It's hard to sit here as a coach and say 'It's acceptable', because we want to have 45 players [available] but we can make do with what we've got and we should be performing better than we are at the moment."

MATCH PREVIEW Pies v Suns

Collingwood enters round 20 in sixth position on the ladder, two games clear inside the top eight. But the last-placed Suns have improved in the past two weeks, and have key midfielders Jack Bowes, Ben Ainsworth and Jack Martin selected in the squad for the MCG clash.

Find AFL Exchange on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify.

Buckley maintained he believes the Pies can halt their "coughing and spluttering" form line.

"We've got four games of the home and away [season] left and our challenge is to improve our football," he said.

"[We need to] get it to a point where we're comfortable and believing in our own skins that we can play against the best sides, and right now we're not there.

"Three weeks ago we beat West Coast over there and it seemed like a strong performance and it was, but our last two performances, in particular last week against Richmond, who are the form side of the competition, showed us the gap between the best and where we are at the moment.

"The good thing is we're not going into an elimination final. We have got time."

Youngster Tyler Brown was considered to make his AFL debut but will play at VFL level this week.

Tyler Brown is edging closer to a senior debut.

