Murphy has been out with a shoulder injury since round eight, and early forecasts predicted he could be on the sidelines for as many as 12 weeks.
But in good news for the besieged Blues, Ratten said the 24-year-old has recovered more quickly than expected, and would be in line to face North Melbourne if he completed all training before then.
"Marc Murphy is a big show to play next week," Ratten said on Wednesday morning.
"But he's missed a lot of football, so how we use him will be something that will challenge the match committee.
"But I'd like to put his name across for next week."
Ratten said ruckman Matthew Kreuzer would be handed a different role against Collingwood on Friday night as he sought to overcome a form slump.
The Blues coach didn't go into specifics about what the role would be, saying only he would "tinker with the way he plays" and "throw a couple of challenges his way".
Ratten admitted Kreuzer's recent performances had been below expectations, but said that was partially due to Carlton's hectic pre-bye schedule, which had reduced the big man's recovery time between matches.
"His form hasn't been what we expect from Matthew; he's been down a little bit," Ratten said.
"We're going to give him some different challenges this week, and I think he's really looking forward to it.
"He's trained really well.
"Before the break we had four games in 18 days, and when someone's gone through what he has (a knee reconstruction that sidelined him until mid-2011), he has missed a fair bit of regular training.
"So now we're back into the seven-day schedule and that allows him to train, get the ball in his hands, those types of things … and he likes that.
"He's a workhorse. Leave him off the track and you lose a little bit of touch and those things."
Ratten said key forward Jarrad Waite was still "a couple of weeks" from a return from his back injury.
