Michael Jamison's leadership credentials are considered as strong as anyone's, but his decision not to stand for the Carlton captaincy was made so he could focus on football and remain injury-free.

In an interview on Monday night on Fox Footy's On the Couch, Blues coach Mick Malthouse said he was surprised the defender had not nominated for the top job, which eventually was bestowed upon star midfielder Marc Murphy.

But speaking at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute on Tuesday, Jamison said he felt it was in the club's best interests for him to step aside from the club's leadership group along with former captain Chris Judd.

Jamison has had his fair share of injury troubles, in particular concerns with his shoulder, but remains one of Carlton's most important players.

"I just thought the best thing I could do for the footy club was to stay healthy, stay fit and play well," he said.

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"The best way to do that was to step down from the leadership group and focus on staying fit and get my body right, and I thought we had young and impressive leaders ready to step in to it."

Collingwood recruit and former Blue Jordan Russell joined Jamison in promoting the Peter Mac Cup, which the winner of the Carlton-Collingwood blockbuster will receive on Sunday.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Blues revealed Eddie Betts and Shaun Hampson will miss the critical clash against the club's arch-rival.

Betts suffered a broken jaw and Hampson is recovering from appendicitis.

"For him (Hampson) to miss with something quite rare is disappointing,  and then Eddie as well, hopefully we get them back the week after, but it is really unlucky," Jamison said.

"They're a couple of guys that are really hard to replace, so it's no doubt going to give the coaches a bit of a headache this week, but I'm sure they'll be able to fix something up."

Malthouse is the first person to coach both Collingwood and Carlton and Jamison expects the veteran coach to have plenty of inside information on his former club.

"A lot of the players Mick coached are still there (at Collingwood), so if there's one or two little tips that he can give on those individuals then that's certainly going to be of benefit," he said.

Russell joked he might dish the dirt on his former teammates this week.

"Who knows? Maybe a few nicknames here and there, a few little stories about Jamo, but, nah, we'll be worrying about the football and winning the game," Russell said.

Much will be made of the Malthouse angle this week, but Jamison said it would be business as usual for the master coach this week.

"I'm sure you guys (the media) will make it very hard not to name it about Mick, but Mick's been around long enough to not let emotion get in the way of preparation."

"He might feel a little bit different inside but he's certainly not going to give anything away to us - so far he's been exactly the same, and I can't see that changing throughout the week."