COLLINGWOOD is seriously considering unleashing Levi Greenwood against the Western Bulldogs on Friday night – possibly as Jack Macrae's minder.

Greenwood is three VFL matches into his return from knee and quad setbacks and AFL.com.au understands the Magpies are preparing to bring him in for the important clash.

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They gave Daniel Wells the same length state league build-up before he played in round eight.

Greenwood first injured the medial ligament in his left knee against his old side North Melbourne in round 20 last year and eventually underwent surgery in December to correct the issue.

The versatile 29-year-old successfully dulled the influence of star midfielders such as Joel Selwood, Andrew Gaff and Rory Sloane last year.

But Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley infamously didn't use Greenwood to tag Tom Mitchell in the first of the Hawk's two 50-touch games against the Magpies in 2017.

Greenwood, the club's sole recognised tagger, was on the sidelines for Mitchell's record-breaking 54-possession performance in round one this year at Collingwood's expense.

Buckley also opted not to follow other sides' lead and tag Brisbane's All Australian Dayne Zorko, who rebounded back into form in style against the Magpies in round seven.

Macrae is arguably the competition's most in-form onballer and is averaging 34.1 disposals (15.1 contested), seven clearances, 6.8 tackles and 5.2 inside 50s this season.

Those numbers have ramped up in the past three rounds to 41 (23), 10.7, 9.7 and six in an extraordinary purple patch.

"Jackson Macrae's been a prolific player over the last three or four weeks and we don't want him getting off the chain," Buckley told reporters on Wednesday.

"Some of (how we approach Macrae) will be about what we want to do as a team and some of it will be about the individual attention we're giving."