"The prognosis for 'Walks' is a little clearer," Cats coach Chris Scott said at Simonds Stadium on Wednesday.
"He's got a significant AC (joint) injury, so he certainly won't be playing for a few weeks, and it could be longer than that. We're not sure yet."
The Cats already had a number of ruckmen on their injury list, with Nathan Vardy (groin), Hamish McIntosh (knee) and Dawson Simpson (back) all some weeks away from playing.
"Don't start talking about curses," Scott said with a grin.
Walker's injury has led Geelong's coaching staff to think about how they can temper his fearless style of play.
"The first contest he went for down at Torquay, he virtually jumped over the pack, missed the ball by a mile, then landed heavily on his shoulder," Scott explained.
"He then hurt that shoulder again later in the game.
"He's an important player for us, even though he's a rookie elevation. We need him out on the ground, so sometimes you can be too courageous for your own good."
Although Walker's injury marred the Cats' VFL win over Williamstown in Torquay on Sunday, some good news came out of the game as well.
Veteran midfielder Joel Corey, who withdrew from the 25-man squad that was named to tackle Hawthorn, gathered 28 possessions and is set to line up against North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
Another veteran onballer, James Kelly, will also return from suspension to take on the Kangaroos.
"So we have some quality players to come back in, but selection is going to be difficult because we have some young players … that we're very happy with at the moment," Scott said.
"It would be unlikely that we would be taking out young players to include those more experienced ones."
Steve Johnson, who had knee surgery last week, will also return in the next couple of weeks.
"He won't play this week," Scott said. "He'll be disappointed that I've said that.
"And he will expect that because we're not going to play him this week we'll play him next week, but that's not guaranteed either.
"But he does recover very quickly, and he's proven that when he thinks he's right to go, generally he is."
Jared Rivers suffered a knee injury during Geelong's seven-point win over Hawthorn on Monday, but it is not a long-term issue.
"It's certainly sore, so there's no guarantee that he'll be okay," Scott said. "He hasn't tested it to this point, so the jury's out a little bit there.
"If he takes the field on the weekend he'll be absolutely ready to go."
Emerging midfielder Allen Christensen was also in the wars against the Hawks.
"Joel Selwood kicked Allen Christensen in the head, which is going to knock you around a little bit," Scott added.
"We took a long time to assess that and check him. We didn't use the concussion sub, but we still took a long time to make sure he was right.
"He came back and performed really well in the second half and he'll be no problem for this week."
Josh Walker is a forward in AFL Fantasy. He averaged 43 points in 2012. Register your team at our AFL Fantasy hub.
Adam McNicol covers Geelong news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter at @AFL_AdamMcNicol
