THE HAMSTRING injury keeping Daniel Merrett out of Saturday night's NAB Cup opening round has been described as "nothing serious" by Brisbane Lions football manager Dean Warren.
Merrett has been ruled out of the matches against Gold Coast and Melbourne but is expected to return in round three of the pre-season competition against Carlton at Maroochydore on March 10.
The 27-year-old Lions' vice-captain has had a flawless pre-season after sitting out the back half of 2011 with back stress fractures, but suffered the twinge at training earlier in the week.
Warren said the Lions were being cautious with their star defender.
"He did pull up earlier in the week with some hamstring soreness and obviously we want to be pretty precautionary with him at this point in time," Warren said.
"There's nothing serious but he'll probably miss a couple of weeks."
Merrett joins Daniel Rich (foot), Josh Drummond (hip) and Andrew Raines (knee) on the sidelines in a team that will be led by Jonathan Brown.
"Whilst it's important to get game time into these guys, with players like Rog (Merrett), we want to make sure he's absolutely ready to go for round one," Warren said.
"We've got a month to do that and we just don't want to rush him back too early with some hamstring soreness.
"He's spewing but it's better to have it now than leading into the first round."
Midfielder Callum Bartlett will also have to wait a little longer to make his Lions debut, also being forced to cool his heels for the first couple of weeks of the NAB Cup.
Bartlett, drafted by the Lions with their first pick (No.27 overall) in the 2009 draft, is coming off successive knee reconstructions and missed the early part of the pre-season.
Warren said the club wanted to ensure his fitness was up to scratch before rushing him into a match.
The Lions will play draftees Billy Longer and Elliot Yeo, along with new recruits Ben Hudson and Jordan Lisle.
Michael Whiting covers Brisbane Lions news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_mikewhiting
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