Walker didn't play a pre-season game because of a foot injury and will face a fitness test ahead of Friday night's fixture at Etihad Stadium.

"He is pushing his case and doing everything he can," teammate Daniel Talia told reporters on Monday.

"I know he wants to play but whether he will get up or not, I'm not sure.

"It depends on how he pulls up this week."

Midfielder Brad Crouch (abdominal strain) appears unlikely to play after also missing the trial game series.

"Crouchy is not quite there yet, again it will depend on what he gets through this week," Talia said.

"I know he's a bit sore at times but the last couple of weeks he has been building up and training with the group."

Talia said selectors would face a dilemma balancing the importance of Walker and Crouch against their lack of match fitness.

"It is tough to come from no pre-season (games) to try and get straight back into round one, especially against Essendon who play really quick footy at Etihad," Talia said.

"They have got to weigh it up. You don't want to take too many underdone guys into round one.

"It's the pace of the game (at Etihad), under the roof the ball zips around ... a lot of the games are real high intensity, lots of sprinting up and down and the ball does move really quick so you have got to factor that in."

The Crows enter the season after a grand final failure against Richmond but Talia said that flop wasn't motivation this year.

"Last year is gone. There's no point in looking at last year now. It gets you nothing, we know that," he said.

"We played some good footy last year and we can take confidence from that but we have got to start again.

"The motivation isn't the grand final.

"The motivation is getting four points and starting off the year well.

"At the same time though it is going to be really good to play another game for points and get over it, there's kind of two sides to it."

Australian Associated Press