Collingwood coach Craig McRae has alluded to resting star midfielder Scott Pendlebury ahead of Friday's clash with Melbourne.
"We may, we may," McRae iterated on Wednesday when the question was posed.
Pendlebury played his 402nd match against Brisbane last Saturday, where Collingwood strung together three goals in three minutes to claim a come-from-behind victory. Dan McStay too was a part of Round 23's win, however he has been ruled out for Collingwood's encounter with Melbourne.
McStay suffered an anterior cruciate ligament tear in late last year, but recovered remarkably well to return in Round 20 against Hawthorn. Since then, McStay has not missed any AFL action, but the Pies will take precautionary measures this week.
"Dan McStay won't play. He's a bit sore," McRae said.
"We think what an incredible story it is to get back and play AFL footy after seven, eight months from a knee reconstruction, and we just thought 'why would we push him to the line?' Let's look after him."
McRae noted Ed Allan is amongst a couple of young players knocking on the door of selection to replace Pendlebury after a significant patch of quality VFL form.
"There'll be a couple of young guys particularly that will be heavily spoken about, because their form is really, really strong at VFL level," McRae said.
"Ed Allan, in particular, his form in the last four weeks has well and truly been above the level.
"His pressure around the ball has increased by four or five tackles in the last month, so he's certainly going to come up for consideration."
Allan recorded six and eight tackles respectively in Rounds 16 and 20 in Collingwood's VFL side, whilst his best performance came against Richmond's VFL outfit in Round 18, recording 32 disposals and scoring two goals.
Collingwood's line-up will be officially announced on Thursday evening. Their final home and away match begins at 7:40pm AEST on Friday against Melbourne at the MCG.
