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Star Carlton defender Jacob Weitering has returned to full training and could make a surprise return from shoulder surgery against St Kilda on Friday night.
Star Carlton defender Jacob Weitering is pushing his case for an early return from shoulder surgery for the surging Blues.
Weitering trained strongly during Carlton's main session at Ikon Park on Wednesday and could face St Kilda at Marvel Stadium on Friday night.
It has only been a month since the 24-year-old badly hurt his right shoulder in a narrow loss to Collingwood.
But coach Michael Voss says the Blues will not rush Weitering - who was in All-Australian contention before his injury - back into the decimated defence just to play on Saints star Max King.
"If he gets through (training) well then he'll be available," Voss said.
"It's still unlikely, probably more realistic for next week.
"When he's gone away and has had surgery, he needs to show us he comes back with full strength.
"I've purely left it in his court; we want a fit player, whether it's this week or next week then so be it."
But midfielder Adam Cerra is likely to take on the Saints after missing just two games with a hamstring issue.
Speedster Jack Martin failed to train on Wednesday and will sit out at least another week with a calf injury.
The Blues enter the match against the under-fire Saints as warm favourites after taking down Fremantle last week to move to a 10-4 record.
Voss admitted he enjoyed reviewing the contest against the Dockers.
"I've done that for a long time, I just sit back and watch the game rather than analyse it and watch it as a fan of the game," Voss said.
"Then you start to put that analytical hat on and you walk out of every game and you say 'there were some really good things out of that'.
"Unfortunately, the coach hat comes on and you still work out some growth areas.
"We should get great belief out of that (win against the Dockers), the way we were able to sustain intensity across the whole game.
"It guarantees us nothing this week, though."
