Hawthorn Hawks defender Grant Birchall will not play against Adelaide Crows and will miss another week due to an ankle injury he suffered from the club’s round eight loss to the Sydney Swans.

According to AFL’s official website reports, Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson confirmed on Wednesday that Birchall would not join the team to Adelaide, but will have Hawks duo Paul Puopolo and Will Langford on Thursday’s match against crows.

Puopolo, who missed Hawks’ round 10 win over the Saints, was sidelined due to a foot injury he sustained against Gold Coast two weeks ago while Langford was also unavailable since round nine because of a calf injury.

“We’ve been saying for three weeks that he thought he was [going to play] next week but he’s been really slow from what we thought initially,” Clarkson said, who also told reporters that Birchall is making progress, but not as quickly as they thought.

The Hawks are now in the sixth spot on the ladder just ahead of the Crows, with both clubs tied at 6-4.

“We’re probably one or two wins beneath where we’d like to be. We’ve played some good footy throughout the course of the year but we’re just been poor in a couple of significant patches of games,” Clarkson said of his team’s first half campaign.

He also cited that they are aware that they need to work hard and play a bit of a catch up in the second half of the season.

Clarkson will return to Adelaide for the first time since having involved in a physical altercation against a Port Adelaide fan as he walked back to the team hotel after their round-four loss to the Power.

He was cleared of any wrongdoing, but will not take any chances jokingly saying that he might put a bicycle helmet the next time he walks back from the hotel.