NEW Blue Alex Mirkov has avoided a high-grade knee injury after his first VFL clash as an AFL-listed player.

Sustaining the injury in the first quarter of Saturday’s clash with Port Melbourne, Mirkov missed the remainder of the clash.

Director of High Performance Andrew Russell predicted a return within a month for the young ruckman.

“Alex’s injury didn’t look great at the time but fortunately it’s not a high-grade injury, he’s got some damage to the back of his knee – the capsule at the back of his knee,” Russell said.

“We expect him to miss three or four games and then we’ll see him back out there again.”

It’s positive news for first-year Blue Luke Parks, the youngster avoiding injury after a clash late in Carlton’s match with GWS on Saturday night.

“Parksy got a hit to the back late in that third quarter,” he said.

“He’s still a bit sore early in the week, we’ll continue to monitor him and we’ll see how he progresses and see how he recovers as the week goes on.”

Michael Gibbons is expected to be available for selection for the first time since Round 12, having sustained a hamstring injury in the clash with the Eagles.

“Gibbo’s good. He trained today, he’ll train Thursday. We’ll test him on Thursday but we expect him to play and be available at either reserves level or AFL level this week,” he said.

Progressing in his recovery from knee injury, defender Lachie Plowman made his return to training this week.

Set to complete a training block before he is available for selection, Plowman remains a week away from his football return.

“’Plow’ is back training now which is great, he’s missed a bit of work though so he needs to do a few sessions before he’s available,” he said.

“He won’t play this week, we expect he’s a really strong chance to play next week.”