CARLTON coach Brett Ratten has laughed off reports that an ailing skipper Chris Judd is in doubt for this week's clash against the Brisbane Lions.

A flu-ridden Judd missed a training session earlier this week, but Ratten maintained there was no doubt about his availability.

"I heard on the news today he was out for the year and he has got bronchitis or pneumonia or something like that, but he was actually down in the weights room," Ratten said.

"He will be fine. He might take it easy today but he'll go for a run tomorrow. He will play for sure."

Ratten also gave Brendan Fevola's fitness his seal of approval despite the star forward appearing troubled by a persistent foot injury at times during last week's season opener.

"He was a little bit sore, but he'll train today and [possibly] on Friday," he said.

"He's through the worst of it now. There might be a little bit lingering there, but it's not too bad.

"It will gradually improve there's problem with that. There's just a little spot there that is slowly going away."

The match committee now faces a tough task to find room for Shaun Grigg and Andrew Walker after the dominant 83-point win against the Tigers and solid contributions from all players.

The win saw the Blues shorten into third favourites for the flag with some bookmakers and Ratten admitted he had been careful to keep his young side grounded following the morale-boosting start to the year.

"I think if you go through round-ones in the past they'll show that it doesn’t make a season," he said.

"You look at last year when the Essendon walloped the Kangaroos by a fair bit. Essendon didn't make the finals, while the Kangaroos did.

"We had an assessment of what history has thrown at all clubs [in round one] and what effect it's had on them. What we brought to the table last week and that attitude is what's expected now.

"Every year you can look at the first round and it shows that [an eventual] bottom eight team has beaten a top eight team. Hopefully this year that's not us."