Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir has revealed recruit Luke Jackson has been limited by injury in his past two matches, with the Dockers star managing a hip problem.
Jackson has been a standout for the Dockers through the middle of the home and away season, however his contributions through the centre of the ground as a supporting ruckman shortened.
The 22-year-old attended just nine ruck contests in his side's Round 16 loss to the Western Bulldogs, with first-string tall Sean Darcy and key forward Josh Treacy recording 89 and 16 contests each for the evening.
Jackson attended 16 ruck contests the week prior in Darcy return from a hamstring injury, with the three prior rounds seeing the former Demon flourish through midfield to average 74.66 contests and 24.33 hitouts per game.
Darcy's return hasn't been the key factor in Jackson's drop in form over the past fortnight, with Longmuir revealing to 7 News Perth on Tuesday that the burgeoning forward-ruck talent has been impacted by injury.
“Over the last two weeks, Luke's been carrying an injury which doesn't allow him to jump at his best and compete at his best in the ruck,” Longmuir told 7News.
“Last week against Essendon, we threw (Treacy) in there for a fair bit as a second ruck and then early in the (Bulldogs) game, JT was second ruck as well.
“We felt like when ‘Jacko' was second ruck in the third quarter, he struggled to elevate.
“He's got a little bit of a hip problem so he wasn't able to ruck in the last quarter, hence we threw JT in there for a few centre bounces while Sean was off (the ground).”
Jackson is expected to face Carlton at Optus Stadium despite the concern, with the young Docker seen to be on the mend heading into the final eight rounds of the season.
Fremantle will be forced into at least one change for Sunday's clash, with veteran Nat Fyfe suffering a foot injury that has placed the remainder of his 2023 campaign in doubt.
The Dockers and Blues will go head-to-head in Perth at 2:40pm local time to round out Round 17.