Geelong will be without Mitch Duncan for their round one clash with Adelaide but are expected to have ruckman Rhys Stanley available.

Duncan, who suffered a recurrence of a calf injury, hasn’t played in either of the Cats two pre-season hit outs against Collingwood and Essendon.

Speaking on SEN on Thursday, Scott said the Cats were being careful with the experienced midfielder.

“(He’s) getting back into training now after really careful management with a calf strain recurrence,” Scott said.

“(It’s) pretty minor, but when you get a recurrence with an experienced player then it’s pretty important to be careful with it, which we’ve done.”

The Cats midfield though will be supported by the return of Stanley who missed the Essendon game with a 12-day concussion protocol.

“(Stanley) went into the 12-day protocol but has been training really strongly in the last few days so he’ll be available,” he said.

But the news isn’t so good for promising forward-ruck Esava Ratugolea who received a kick in his previously fractured leg and suffered a new fracture.

The Cats however expect him to be back in calculations in the early rounds of the season.

“It’s a bit of bad luck for Esava, he got a kick at training on his lower leg where he’d previously had a fracture in his fibula,” Scott said.

“(He) had it scanned multiple times and nothing came up so we were optimistic we could get him back in a week or two, but it sort of persisted a bit and we rescanned it again and the fracture’s shown up.

“Total time looks like being four to six weeks, he’s already done sort of three to four so hopefully he’s not too far away. Disappointing for him and us, for sure.”

Luke Dahlhaus played a half in the VFL practice match on the weekend and is expected to be available for selection in round one.

Geelong takes on Adelaide at the Adelaide Oval on Saturday March 20 at 4.35PM AEDT.