Late call-up Andy Otten will likely retain his spot this weekend as the Crows try and cover injuries

ANDY Otten will likely retain his spot in the Crows line-up for this weekend’s match against Gold Coast as Adelaide deals with multitude of injuries.

Kyle Hartigan, left, and Daniel Talia tackle Sydney's Lance Franklin on Friday night. Hartigan left the game soon after with a hamstring injury. Picture: Phil Hillyard

ANDY Otten is almost certain to retain his spot in Adelaide’s side to play the Gold Coast on Saturday after key defender Kyle Hartigan went down with a hamstring injury on the weekend.

Otten got the late call-up to replace Curtly Hampton in the Crows’ team against Sydney on Friday night which was his first AFL game of the season.

His solid performance combined with Adelaide’s spirited win over the Swans and the injury to Hartigan means he is set to take on the Suns on Saturday night.

The two most like-for-like replacements for Hartigan - Kyle Cheney and Alex Keath - are still both two weeks away from playing as they recover from hamstring and ankle injuries.

“Hopefully over the next couple of weeks we should have half a dozen guys pushing - whether it’s SANFL or AFL - to get back in contention which helps with our depth,” Adelaide assistant coach Tate Kaesler said.

“He (Otten) had a little injury in the JLT Series and then it was just getting himself right, and we thought he was the best balance for our team coming in after Curtly Hampton did something in the last session.

“With his experience we thought that was the best strategy to go in with and it worked, especially when Harto went down.”

Andy Otten flies to spoil the pack during Friday night’s win over the Swans. Picture: Getty Images

Kaesler’s brief at the Crows is team defence and he rated Friday night’s effort to keep the Swans to 75 points as their best of the season.

“The main factors that I got out of the game was our pressure on the ball carrier - when it came out of our forward 50 the ability of our forwards to put pressure on and our midfielders to find their opponent straight away.

“And that helped with a few more pressure kicks going into our defensive 50 area which allowed our defenders to go to work and step off, support, get in Buddy’s way or come third man in and impact those contests.

“That third quarter it was 20-8 inside 50s so they were under siege for a while and I thought their ability to hold up was outstanding.”

Rory Sloane (foot), David Mackay (concussion) and Lachlan Murphy (hamstring) are expected to come under consideration for selection this week but Eddie Betts and Matt Crouch (both hamstring) are still 1-2 weeks away.

Captain Taylor Walker carried foot soreness into the win over the Swans but showed no signs of it or external criticism of his performance from the week before hampering him with four goals.

“I think everyone is entitled to their opinion, it’s whether you listen to it or not and all I listen to is my coach and the people I trust,” Walker said.