CARLTON forward Jarrad Waite's finals campaign hinges on his ability to complete a series of searching training runs planned for this weekend.

Waite, 28, has been sidelined since round 16 when he underwent surgery to repair hip ligament damage.

He was expected to have been ready to resume by round 23, but with Carlton to take on St Kilda in the final round of the home and away season on Saturday night, Ratten said the important forward was still not fit to play.

"He won't play this week. He ran yesterday and he's got another running session on Friday which will be really close to determining how he goes," Ratten said from Visy Park on Wednesday.

"Those Friday, Saturday and Sunday sessions over the weekend will really determine his fate going towards the finals.

"He was going really well and probably stalled a little bit, but this … running over the weekend will really determine where we sit for finals [with Waite].

"It's probably come to a point where we either need to keep pushing [him] on or we need to pull the plug. We need to find out because there's not too many games left."

Although the weekend's training sessions will go a long way to determining the club's course of action with Waite's recovery, Ratten said a final decision on his season was unlikely to be made before next week.

Even if Waite is able to convince the club's medical staff he is ready to make a comeback, his lack of match conditioning is a serious concern.  

"It would be something that would be really talked about," Ratten said of the prospect of selecting an underdone Waite.

"I suppose there is a risk factor. You want to take fit men into finals, but I suppose with the sub rule it would be nice to maybe have a Jarrad Waite sitting there as a sub and maybe use him in limited game time."

Full-back Michael Jamison, who missed seven weeks with a knee injury suffered in round 14, pulled up well from a run with the Northern Bullants and will play against the Saints, but ruckman Shaun Hampson rolled an ankle and will need another week in the VFL before being considered.

Win or lose against St Kilda, the Blues will almost certainly play Essendon in the first week of the finals, but Ratten said his players could not afford to look beyond this weekend's clash.

"There's no language from any of the coaches talking about Essendon until we get to next week," he said.

"The process that we've had in place week to week [this year] has been about our performance and our KPI's and things like that. We'll still be really driven by that.

"It's another chance to rehearse for the finals and another chance for players to gain some real confidence heading into the finals. There is a lot to play for."

Carlton heads into its third finals campaign in succession under Ratten with doubt remaining over the future of the coach who is out of contract at the end of the season.

Ratten said there had been no change in the club's position on negotiating a new deal with all talks put off until the conclusion of the Blues' finals campaign.