CARLTON will have to buck the trend of recent history to beat the Saints tomorrow night, having lost their past seven meetings in a streak stretching back to round one, 2002.

The loss of Nick Stevens, having surgery today on a season-ending neck injury, will test the Blues' midfield depth but coach Denis Pagan is confident the Blues can bounce back from last week's loss to Brisbane.

Veteran Anthony Koutoufides, who damaged a tendon in his finger two months ago, met his surgeon yesterday but Pagan expects the former skipper is still a week away from returning.

"He's maybe a week ahead of schedule … he's going really well," Pagan said.

"He would love to play this week and hopefully he gets the all-clear, but it's very hard without getting the all-clear (so) we're probably focusing on next week."

Koutoufides took part in a skills session yesterday wearing a protective glove on his right hand but looked tentative at times when marking the ball.

At least two players will come into the side after Ryan Jackson broke his hand in only his second game and Simon Wiggins pulled up with a hamstring complaint.

Pagan ruled Wiggins out but refused to speculate on who could come into the side.

And the coach said he had spoken to Brendan Fevola, who twice remonstrated with umpires last week while the ball was still in play in the Blues' forward line.

"We had a talk to him," Pagan said. "I'm sure everyone makes mistakes or regrets some things that happen, Brendan's done that and I'm sure he'll learn from it."

The coach said he had "always subscribed to the theory that what happened last week has nothing to do with what's going to happen this week" and expects Fevola has moved on, too.

The Saints, already battling injury to defenders Matt Maguire, Max Hudghton and Sam Fisher, also have to cover the loss of midfielder Lenny Hayes, who broke his collarbone last week.

Both sides have two wins, with the Saints, who were highly fancied to finish well inside the eight, sitting just above the Blues on the ladder with a slim 8.3 per cent advantage in 13th spot.

After last week's 53-point loss to Port Adelaide, new Saints coach Ross Lyon said "we'll educate, we'll adjust and aim to be 3-3" tomorrow night.