LANCE Whitnall's return to football is a minimum of three weeks away, with the Carlton captain's chronic knee injury yet to allow him to make a comeback even to regular training.

When Whitnall finally bowed to his knee problem in the week leading into Carlton's round-13 match against Fremantle, coach Denis Pagan thought that his key forward was likely to miss four matches at the most. That forecast has now been revised and a six-week break appears more realistic.

Whitnall had the third of three injections to help lubricate his troublesome knee joint late last week and suffered an adverse reaction that caused unexpected swelling. That has put his return to the training back for at least another week.

Carlton's head of football operations, Steven Icke, said yesterday that while the the Blues still believed Whitnall would play again this season he would first need to train for a fortnight before being considered for selection. Whitnall had been unable to train properly for six weeks before the decision was taken a fortnight ago to rest him.

"He hasn't yet been able to get back on the track and do any football-related training. He's doing a lot of cross-training at the moment and weight work but until such time as he can put a couple of weeks work on the track he's really not available for selection," Icke said.

"And I think the opinion is that he's at least a week away from a return to the track. He's certainly making some progress but the last injection he had a reaction to. Not that that's unusual. It doesn't normally happen but it can happen that there is an adverse reaction. As a consequence, there's a bit more swelling than there would normally be and we're treating that at the moment. It's a setback but certainly not season-ending. Not at this stage."

Whitnall conceded in a television interview last night that he was now unsure about when he might return. "It's sort of uncertain at the moment," said the 27 year-old.