Coach Michael Voss has refused to discuss Carlton's plethora of injured players as he attempts to rally his decimated charges for their crunch AFL clash with West Coast.
Charlie Curnow (ankle), Harry McKay (quad), Jack Martin (hamstring), Adam Saad (hamstring), Lachie Fogarty (collarbone) and Jordan Boyd (adductor) were all injured in Sunday's disastrous loss to Hawthorn.
They joined Tom De Koning (foot/lung), Adam Cerra (hamstring), Orazio Fantasia (calf) and Matt Cottrell (shoulder) on the sidelines.
It meant Carlton had to make six forced changes for Sunday's clash at Optus Stadium.
Ashton Moir and Cooper Lord will debut, while one-gamer Jaxon Binns has been recalled along with Lewis Young, Jack Carroll and Corey Durdin.
It is a must-win match given ninth-placed Carlton sit outside the top eight on percentage with two rounds left.
Curnow and McKay were among those doing light work early in Friday's training session.
But when asked whether he was hopeful of any of his injured players returning next week, Voss cut off the question part way through, saying: "I'm not focusing on the injuries.
"So you can focus on the injuries and write about them as much as you like, but I'll focus on the guys that are actually going to get out there and play, and the guys who are training and a job that we need to be able to get done."
Voss indicated the Blues wouldn't change their approach in a bid to avoid further injury carnage.
"There's not a lot you can do about fractured collarbones and the like, so we'll face the next challenge," he said.
"And that's the thing that we love about our game. There's a great unknown, there's a great uncertainty about what happens next.
"But that's where courage lies and that's where your boldness lies, and that's what we're going to have to be like this week, is play courageous, play bold, get a plan in place and execute it."
Voss wouldn't be drawn on whether Carlton would overhaul their conditioning program, insisting that was a "post-season" area to address.
Fitness boss Andrew Russell is already departing at season's end.
The Blues hope to use the trip away to Perth as a bonding experience, and draw on the "excitement" of their debutants.
But Voss also urged his charges to respond to a poor defensive showing against Hawthorn.
"That's our job is to look at from our point of view, just how much the injuries played a part versus how much our system let us down," he said.
"The reality is we didn't defend hard enough as a team and we don't step away from that.
"We talk about personnel a lot. You can talk about who's there and who's not there, but my experience is that there's an attitude towards the way we want to be able to defend, and it wasn't in the right place on the weekend."
