BRISBANE Lions captain Jonathan Brown missed training on Friday afternoon, adding fuel to rumours he could miss Saturday night's clash with Melbourne.

Coach Michael Voss confirmed Brown was managing a groin injury but said he was still a chance to line up against the Demons.

"There's no need for an operation, no osteitis pubis. I can guarantee you 100 per cent," Voss said.

"He was tracking along fine until the weekend then it blew up a little bit. It's just a matter of managing it."

The Lions have flown emergencies Albert Proud and Troy Selwood to Melbourne as back up. They trained with the main group while a tracksuited Brown did handball drills with assistant coach Craig McRae

Rumours about Brown's fitness have been circulating all week, sparking a betting plunge on Melbourne and forcing some bookmakers to suspended betting on the game until Brown's availability is definite.

Voss said one of Selwood or Proud would play if the medical staff was less than satisfied with Brown's groin.

"We won't take any risks with Browny, it's too long a season to take risks at this time of year."

Voss said flying down two emergencies rather than just the standard one was a precautionary measure rather than any lingering doubt about veteran Simon Black, who returns this week from a calf injury.

“We are just making sure we are dotting the Is and crossing the Ts because you can’t afford to have to wake up with someone crook and all of a sudden we are one player short and have to fly one down. We’re taking extra precautions,” he said.

Should Brown not make it out to the field, Voss said he would be reluctant to move Mitch Clark from the ruck to the forward line to cover for him.

“I like to play him as a ruckman. That is where he has made his name and we don’t want to necessarily be robbing one area to pay another. That is something we’d look at across the course of the game but it won’t be our main focus.”

The match is Melbourne’s fifth straight at their home ground the MCG but Voss said home-ground advantage shouldn’t have an impact on his team.

“We’ve got to have an approach where wherever we go it shouldn’t matter where the venue is or the pillow we sleep on. We went to AAMI and we got away with a win there (against Port Adelaide),” he said.

“This is the only opportunity we get to play on the MCG all year, barring a good outcome where we get to play finals...If you look at it that way there will be plenty of boys who are looking forward to it and I certainly know Browny, Blacky (Simon Black) and Luke (Power) in particular always look forward to playing in MCG games.”