Craig McRae says he doesn't know if reports Collingwood star Jordan De Goey is angry with the AFL club over its handling of his latest off-field drama are true.
De Goey has taken personal leave amid the fallout from his ill-fated Bali trip and first-year coach McRae is hopeful the 26-year-old will return to the club on Monday.
It remains to be seen whether De Goey will be cleared to play as the seventh-placed Magpies chase a sixth consecutive win in their clash with Gold Coast on Saturday night.
Collingwood released a video last Friday in which De Goey apologised for his actions in Bali, but the statement was at odds with the player's initial sentiments.
In a prior post on his personal Instagram page, De Goey hit out at media outlets for "the relentless pursuit and persecution of athletes" after a scathing reaction to video that leaked of him partying on the Indonesian island.
Reports have since surfaced claiming out-of-contract gun De Goey is unhappy with the club for forcing him into an apology, but McRae could not confirm those details when he fronted media after Sunday's win over GWS.
"I'm not sure. I'll dig deeper when I get a chance to really sit down with him," McRae said.
"We want Jordy back - he makes us better - at the right time.
"We're hoping that he can get himself in a place where he's comfortable to step in and be a professional footballer again."
McRae believes De Goey is edging closer to a return to Collingwood but there is still no timeline on his playing comeback.
"I've spoken to him a couple of times and hopefully I get to speak to him tomorrow," McRae said.
"Based on the conversations I've had, I think there's some movement in terms of feeling better.
"I don't know what that equates to yet but there's definitely a slight shift on his mood.
"I'll hopefully catch up with him tomorrow at some stage and see where that takes us."
McRae admitted the De Goey saga had been a distraction leading into the GWS game, in which the inaccurate Magpies survived a late scare to win by 11 points.
"Your attention gets pulled away from what you need to do," McRae said.
"I think that's reality. I can speak for myself, that's how I felt my week's been.
"Without speaking for others, you get asked down the shops and whatever it looks like ... but we were really well prepared to play.
"We trained as good as we had and then it's just a matter of going out an executing.
"For most parts of the game I thought we did that."
