Injury-ravaged Carlton will have to beat St Kilda without Charlie Curnow to seal an AFL finals spot after the gun forward failed to overcome an ankle injury.
Dashing small forward Zac Williams (hamstring tightness) will also miss the game after he was withdrawn on Friday evening, compounding Carlton's injury woes.
Curnow had been named on Thursday to return for Sunday's game at Marvel Stadium, but was officially ruled out on Friday.
It's a hammer blow to Carlton's hopes of locking in their top-eight berth.
Spearhead Curnow has 57 goals in 21 games while Williams has kicked 15 goals in 18 games and provided crucial speed and forward pressure.
Mitch McGovern (hamstring) was named but also appears unlikely to get up.
Carlton can seal finals with a win, but a loss to the in-form Saints will give Fremantle a chance to leapfrog them.
"I’ll start with the bad news, Charlie's not playing. So that's the not-so-great news," coach Michael Voss said.
"We sort of thought that he might be able to pull up pretty well from some of the things that he did the other day, but he hasn't pulled up as well as what we expected.
"So we'll just make that call now and obviously it gives us an opportunity to be able to lock in on what our forward mix is going to be. So, obviously banking in that we can get the job done a couple of times in a row."
Harry McKay (quad), Jack Martin (hamstring), Lachie Fogarty (collarbone), Jordan Boyd (adductor), Tom De Koning (foot/lung), Adam Cerra (hamstring) and Matt Cottrell (shoulder) are also sidelined.
Voss wouldn't rule Sam Docherty - who suffered a third ACL tear in March - out of making a comeback in finals if the Blues make it.
Brodie Kemp, who kicked four goals against the Eagles, will stay in attack but the Blues believe Curnow will be fine to play in the first week of the finals if Carlton qualify.
"It's something that he's obviously had to manage for a little while, but just feel like we just need to give it that little extra (time to) settle so it can settle down a little bit more," he said.
"But that'll be three, four weeks, after his last incident. So I feel pretty confident that obviously the best-case scenario getting through and playing, that he'll be fit and available."
McGovern (hamstring) didn't train with the main group and clearly appears in some doubt to play.
"We'll give him every opportunity to be able to get up," Voss said.
Corey Durdin dislocated his shoulder against West Coast and is also touch-and-go.
Defender Adam Saad has been named to return after a week out with a "very low-grade" hamstring injury with Voss saying Carlton had opted not to risk him on a flight to Perth.
"He'll play," Voss said.
