COLLINGWOOD coach Nathan Buckley says the seriousness of the Magpies' injury list has been exaggerated and believes the majority of his players will be available in time for round one of the season proper.

Premiership forward Brent Macaffer was the latest to join the rehabilitation group on Saturday night when he ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament against the Western Bulldogs in the Pies' first NAB Cup hit-out at Blacktown.

Macaffer will undergo a traditional knee reconstruction on Tuesday night.

With Alan Didak (adductor), Ben Johnson (hamstring), Harry O'Brien (hand), Chris Tarrant (foot), Ben Reid (shoulder) and Nathan Brown (knee) currently restricted or coming back from injuries, much has been made about the Pies' disjointed preparation.

But Buckley said most of the players - bar potentially Andrew Krakouer, young midfielder Josh Thomas and rookie Daniel Farmer - should be available for the Pies' March 30 season opener against Hawthorn.

"Our injury profile is probably on a par with what it's been in previous years - [but] the reporting of our injury profile is not on par with what it has been in the last few years," Buckley said at the Pies' Australia Post AFL Community Camp in Wangaratta on Tuesday.

"We're in fairly good shape. We're going to have the majority of our list available for selection in a couple of weeks but that's not the be all and end all either.

"Andrew has been well documented and 'Taz' has still got a way to go [but] four or five weeks away though he should be right to go.

"Nathan Brown will be thereabouts [for round one] and we expect to see Ben Reid in a couple of weeks.

"[Macaffer] has been a disappointment for us and he won't be there. 'Johnno' should be up and running in the next couple of weeks, and 'Dids' will be very close."

Tarrant is back training after a few weeks off the track while Reid and Brown are aiming to play late in the NAB Cup series.

Tarrant, Brown, Didak, Johnson, Krakouer and Heath Shaw were among those who didn't make the trip to Wangaratta, with the latter staying back at the club to recover from Saturday night's wins against the Bulldogs and Greater Western Sydney.

Macaffer met with the surgeon on Monday night and a decision was made to stick with the traditional form of reconstructive surgery over the LARS procedure.

"We make the right decisions at the club, not short-term decisions. Getting 'Caff' up and running at the end of this recovery is going to be most important, and it's less important when that is," Buckley said.

The Pies don't play another NAB Cup game until they meet Melbourne on March 3 at Etihad Stadium.

Buckley said the program would see the players revert to their own programs this weekend after what had been a tough lead in to the pre-season opener.

"It's standard practice. Some will train hard, some will take the load off, depending on where they are with their own preparation," he said.

"We've been going fairly hard since Christmas, right up to the GWS/Western Bulldogs game last weekend, so there are chances there to load off in the next couple of weeks and then have another crack at it going into round one."