ANDREW Walker will play his first game of the premiership season on Friday night when Carlton takes on Fremantle at Subiaco, but the Blues have lost Jeremy Laidler for up to eight weeks.

The rebounding defender underwent surgery on his troublesome left kneecap on Tuesday after he re-injured it during Saturday's loss to Essendon.

Walker, 25, has recovered from the quadriceps tendon injury that hobbled him late in the pre-season and Brett Ratten won't hesitate to put the forward back into the line-up despite his lack of match fitness.

"He won't play in the VFL, he'll come straight back in, and I'm glad he's back because he's bothered me," Ratten said from Visy Park on Tuesday.

"He's [been] in my office, he's sending me text messages 'I'm ready, I'm ready to go, pick me'. He was like that last week. Maybe I should have picked him last week, but we just needed to make sure we got those [recovery] things right.

"He's ready to fire and play well. I wouldn't like to play on him because they're going to be doing a few kilometres - he's ready to be let off the leash."

Laidler dislocated his kneecap in the second round of the NAB Cup, but surprised many outside the club by recovering from arthroscopic surgery to play in the opening round of the premiership season.

However, the 22-year-old fell to the turf clutching the same knee in pain early in the upset loss to the Bombers at the MCG and struggled through the rest of the contest.

Laidler joins Andrew Carrazzo on the sidelines, with the tagger set to miss up to 10 weeks after undergoing surgery to repair a broken right shoulder blade suffered in the same game.

Ratten is also sweating on the availability of Ed Curnow (ankle) and Chris Yarran (toe) who he rated only a 50-50 chance of playing against Freo.

It's bad news for the coach trying to plot a swift return to the winner's list in enemy territory, but Ratten remains confident despite the disappointing manner of the Blues' defeat at the hands of Essendon.

"Most of our battles in the first few weeks have been two teams going head to head and if there's a push then there's a shove back the other way," he said.

"[Against Essendon] I didn't see much resistance from us back in their faces.

"It will be on again physically and we'll see who can attack the ball the hardest. I expect our group to be pretty hungry this week."

Ratten has plenty on his plate off the field as well this week with his wife due to give birth to his third child the day after the round five clash.

The coach will fly to Perth with the rest of the team on Wednesday and catch a flight that will deliver him back into Melbourne in the early hours of Saturday morning.

"The baby isn't due until Saturday so we expect it to adhere to protocol," he said.

"We've spoken to her obstetrician to make sure everything's all right. We'll be right."
 
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs