AFL 2016: Up to seven out as teams play safe on head injuries

Clubs' care for players recovering from head injuries could see up to seven players held back this week.

While close to recalling Jack Trengove after a two-year absence from senior football, Melbourne have ruled both Christian Salem and Angus Brayshaw out of the trip to the Gold Coast.

Salem sat out much of last week's loss to St Kilda after a head knock, while Brayshaw was concussed after being hit in the back of the head with the ball in a VFL game for Casey.

Tests: Ben Sinclair of the Magpies is recovering from his second concussion this season. Photo: Getty Images

Collingwood are closely monitoring Ben Sinclair, who is recovering from his second concussion this season, and are unable to consider Corey Gault.

Gault has missed two matches after being concussed in a VFL match, and is set to sit out at least one more.

Port Adelaide will see how Chad Wingard recovers from Wednesday's training session before determining whether he has recovered from the knock that saw him miss last week's win over Richmond.

Hawthorn defender James Frawley is in doubt after being concussed in the second quarter of last week's match against Greater Western Sydney.

And the Western Bulldogs must make a call on Lachie Hunter, who spent time in hospital after being caught head-high by North Melbourne forward Lindsay Thomas.

Collingwood head of football Neil Balme said while Sinclair had been cleared to play out last week's game against West Coast, he was still not feeling the best.

He was a late withdrawal from the Pies' Anzac Day side.

"He's some chance, but I'd say it's less likely than likely. It depends on how he's feeling, so we'll see how he goes," Balme said.

"He did all the tests last week and got through and felt OK, but felt ordinary the next day.

"We're so much more discerning these days and if there's any doubt at all he won't play."

Melbourne – who will name Chris Dawes for his first VFL match this week – said neither Brayshaw nor Salem had recovered enough to be considered.

"Gus was a day later than Christian – he had a pretty solid hit to the head with the footy and is still symptomatic today," the club's elite performance manager Dave Misson told the club's website.

"Christian was touch and go and had a run today, but he still had some recurring symptoms.

"They're two young guys and we want to set them up for a good season, so we've ruled them out already."

Trengove, the Demons' second pick in the 2009 draft, has not featured at senior level for the club since round two in 2014 because of a chronic foot injury.

He has also dealt with the after-effects of a head knock this year, named among Casey's best three players for the past three weeks after being knocked out early in his first VFL match.

After two operations to fix bone fractures, the 24-year-old has now strung together four games.

Coach Paul Roos is heartened by Trengove's progress and says the next step is up to the former club co-captain.

"I had a chat to him last week and told that I'd purposely left him alone ... it's almost a case of him coming to us when he feels like he's comfortable and saying that he really wants to put his hand up for senior selection," Roos said.

"He's said that he's loving being back out there and I said to come and knock on my door when he thinks he's ready.

"Then [we'll talk about] what he really needs to work on to play AFL as opposed to just letting him play [VFL] and enjoy it. "[But] it's a credit to him the way he's been playing."

Roos will continue to take a conservative approach with the talented onballer.

The coach's more immediate concerns are planning for a rare trip to the Gold Coast to take on the Suns at Metricon Stadium on Saturday night.

Roos is demanding a more balanced approach from his side after they lost a shootout to St Kilda last weekend.

"Having opened up our scoring, sometimes it opens up our defence," he said.

"I think we've spoken about balance here a lot, trying to get the balance right, and on the weekend we were still able to score and put pressure on but defensively we were really poor.

"It's hard to win a shoot out at Etihad because we don't play there enough."

Roos said he was not surprised 22-year-old midfielder Jack Viney had emerged as a potential Brownlow Medal winner.

"He's a really good learner, a really good listener, he's got really good fundamental footy traits, good speed, good endurance and we know he's hard around the footy," he said.

Melbourne and Gold Coast sit just outside the top eight with 3-3, but the Suns are coming off a 120-point mauling at the hands of Geelong.