CARLTON is banking on the youthful energy of debutant Levi Casboult as the Blues attempt to get their season back on track without a recognised ruckman against the Western Bulldogs.

With Shaun Hampson (knee) done for the season and Rob Warnock serving a VFL suspension, Matthew Kreuzer was the last ruck standing at the club, but he has succumbed to the hip injury he picked up against Collingwood two weeks ago.

That forced Carlton to roll the dice and elevate the rookie tall forward on Thursday, then name him as the lead ruckman to go up against veteran Bulldog Will Minson on Saturday night.   

While it's clearly not ideal, assistant coach John Barker said Casboult deserved his opportunity.

"He's an exciting young player and I think there's going to be great energy come out of the guy," Barker said from Visy Park on Friday.

"He's a bit of a character around the club who the boys love.

"In terms of preparing for this role he's been doing some extra work with the ruck guys and he does have a ruck background, so it's not like it's a foreign position to him. He's looking forward to it.

"We don't want to give him too many instructions, especially given it's his first game. We want him to go out there and enjoy it and play on a bit more instinct rather than cripple him with too much instruction."

Inside midfielder Tom Bell will also make his debut off the rookie list with his "take no prisoners" approach a key to his elevation according to Barker.

The inclusions of Casboult and Bell are two of five enforced changes to the Blues' team that suffered a 53-point loss to North Melbourne last week that put a serious dent in their finals hopes.

Chris Judd (suspension), Kane Lucas (hamstring), Andrew Walker (calf), Lachie Henderson (groin) and Kreuzer all depart the team, but Barker said that couldn't be their focus ahead of the important clash.

"What we're not doing is talking about who we've got out and what we can't do, but what we have been talking about to the players is who is playing and what they can do," he said.

"We feel that they can bring good, strong effort tomorrow and we're going to get some excitement out of them.

"We're looking forward to a really good game."

Judd was the first player out on the track for Friday's training session and the last to leave as he prepares to serve the first game of a four-week suspension for his chicken wing tackle on the Kangaroos' Leigh Adams.

Barker said the skipper would continue to make his presence felt around the club despite the playing ban.

"He's obviously an outstanding character around the club," he said.

"He leads by example and he's as professional as they come. He'll be no different over the next month - he'll provide a lot of insights for the midfield group.

"He took the midfield preview meeting this morning, so that's a bit of a sign of how good a leader he is … we expect him to have an impact over the next month while he's out."

Barker is hopeful Kreuzer and Henderson will only miss one week with their respective injuries.

Forgotten forward Jarrad Waite has overcome the persistent back injury that has derailed his season and will play at least one game in the VFL as he attempts to regain match conditioning.