BLUES coach Brendon Bolton is adamant captain Marc Murphy is a "valued and wanted" player at the Carlton Football Club, amid external commentary around his future.
Speaking to media on Friday morning, Bolton had nothing but praise for the 240-game midfielder and his influence on the playing group.
"He's a really valued and wanted player – he's our captain," Bolton told reporters.
"We know what a quality ball user (he is), and he said he loves Carlton, so he'd be working through that (contract) now with his management and our footy club, but if I'm required in (those negotiations), I will.
"We're not talking about losing Marc Murphy at the moment, so that one doesn't come into the equation.”
The Blues' reigning club champion will undergo scans on Friday to determine the damage to scar tissue in his foot after significant swelling prevented an earlier inspection of the setback.
Carlton is already without All Australian Sam Docherty (knee), fellow backman Caleb Marchbank (ankle) and Levi Casboult (broken rib).
Bolton refuted a question that the Blues may have brought Murphy back too soon.
"It's a joint decision between 'Murph' and (our medicos and) he thought in his mind he's ready to go," the coach said.
"We backed that decision and we think it's the right decision."
The Curnow brothers – Charlie and Ed – return from injury and suspension, respectively, this week, on top of the recalls of demoted pair Jacob Weitering and David Cuningham.
That will help the difficult task facing Carlton on Saturday as it travels to GMHBA Stadium to take on Geelong for the first time since 1997.
Weitering’s inconsistent form early in the season gained attention, and Bolton elected to leave the 2015 No.1 draft pick in the VFL for three matches after initially sticking by him.
"'Weiters' understood his form was inconsistent, so he knew that going into that opportunity at VFL," Bolton said.
"He learned a lot about himself and had some really clear focuses (one-on-one defending and intercept marking) and it's not unusual for youngsters to have the VFL as part of their development.
"But with our reset, we've probably used AFL more than VFL, just through circumstance.
"He played numerous (AFL) games and there were some ups and downs in those games, but backing him in doesn't mean you're never going to play VFL."
Bolton said the onus was on the players to respond from last week's triple-digit hiding and there was a "determination" among them to do exactly that against the Cats.
