Adelaide defender Josh Worrell is being lauded for his leadership despite being tagged as a "wild child" by coach Matthew Nicks.
Nicks says he may have gone too far in his colourful description of Worrell, whose car struck a pedestrian on his way to training last Friday.
The Crows coach says Worrell is still "working through" the accident, which is under police investigation after the 25-year-old and the pedestrian reported to police.
"It been a pretty challenging few days for Josh, he's working through after his accident," Nicks told reporters on Tuesday.
"But we're just doing whatever we can to support him through that."
Two weeks ago, Nicks referred to Worrell as his "wild child" in the lead-up to the Showdown when the coach batted away a rumour from Chad Cornes.
The ex-Port stalwart suggested Worrell's absence from a previous game could be discipline-related, not illness as cited by the Crows.
"I might have gone a bit far with it," Nicks said.
"It was just a bit of a tongue in cheek with Josh; Josh and I have a running joke about him being my wild child.
"He's actually the opposite to that now but go back four or five years I had a close eye on Joshy, where he was at."
Worrell was selected by Adelaide pick 28 at the 2019 national draft.
But the Victorian left-footer has admitted struggling with the professionalism of the AFL - he played only five games in his initial two years.
Worrell added another 25 across the following two seasons before a breakout when considered unlucky to miss last year's All Australian team.
"He's now one of our most professional," Nicks said.
"He's not officially in that leadership group every week but he's in there with them, talking about what we need to do.
"Guys follow him. He's a real leader at the club."
Nicks confirmed triple club champion Rory Laird would be sidelined two to four weeks by an ankle injury, with mid-season draftee Hugo Hall-Kahan in the frame for Friday night's away game against Sydney.
The fifth-placed Crows are also weighing a rest for Taylor Walker, with Nicks flagging the veteran forward, one shy of the 700 goal milestone, will sit out some games ahead of finals.
"We've six weeks before hopefully a final series," he said.
"But we've got some work to do to still get there.
"Tex, he wants to play every single week ... but he'll miss - when I say miss he'll be managed one or two over the next six.
"Will it be this week? Maybe not."
