Hawthorn defender Matt Suckling will miss Friday night's AFL qualifying final against Geelong at the MCG as he continues to recover from a knee complaint.

Suckling did some light training on Thursday at Waverley Park but will be out of action for a second consecutive game, Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson said.

"He won't play this week unfortunately. He hasn't quite come up," Clarkson told reporters.

"He's tracking pretty well but it just wasn't quite the progress that we would have liked for him to be able to play on Friday night.

"He'll hopefully get himself right for the next game that we play, whether that's next week or the week after."

Suckling was injured in round 22 against the Cats.

The 75-game veteran played every match this season for the defending premiers apart from last week's win over Collingwood.

The East Wagga-Kooringal product didn't play a senior game in 2013 because of a pre-season knee injury.