Injury has forced Adelaide to make at least two changes to its team to play Essendon on Friday night with key forward Taylor Walker and defender Luke Brown both ruled out.

Although Walker had made progress in his recovery from a neck strain suffered in Saturday’s loss to Brisbane, he is also nursing a muscle strain in his chest and will miss the Round 17 game against the Bombers at Marvel Stadium.

“There’s still a little bit of soreness there that he’s not going to be anywhere near ready to play," Crows coach Matthew Nicks said.

“He was really confident with it in the week.

“He’s disappointed. He wants to play every game he possibly can and get amongst the younger group. It looks like we'll be coming into a nine-day break next week, I think it would be silly for us to try and push too hard with him at the moment.

“If it continues to track like it is, we’d like to think he’ll be right for the Eagles. But again, it’s an unusual one and it’s one we are not going to flirt with too much.

“He’s still got some soreness there. He had a side strain after Tuesday’s session. He came off the track and felt a little bit sore in the side. Whether that is something he hadn’t picked up from the game because there was so much stiffness in his neck, we are not sure."

Brown has also been ruled out of the game due to ongoing soreness in his Achilles.

The experienced defender will have scans and consult a specialist in coming days to determine the most appropriate course of management which may involve surgery.

“He’s had the Achilles soreness, it’s been ongoing and he’s managed that throughout the year," Nicks said.

“It’s to a point now where we are starting to look at his medium to longer-term outlook... we don’t want to do the wrong thing there and grind him through the rest of the season.

“There is a chance he goes in for surgery. We are going to make a decision around that, he’s going to consult another expert on that.

“We want to make the right decision there. We don’t want to do that too early but we also want 2022 for him to be a successful year. The longer you wait on an Achilles, the more it goes into next year as well. We will see what the experts say."