Lachie Neale has withdrawn from the side to take on the Crows in Adelaide today.

Rhys Mathieson, who performed well for the Lions during Neale’s absence with an ankle injury earlier in the season and also as a one-game replacement for Dayne Zorko when he served a suspension, comes back into the side.

Neale suffered a slight calf injury at training on Wednesday.

The Brownlow medalist put his hand up to play after completing a final training session in Melbourne on Friday but Senior coach Chris Fagan made the late call to remove him from the squad for today’s fly-in-fly-out mission to Adelaide.

He is expected to be available for next week’s game against St Kilda.