THERE'S no sugarcoating Carlton's disastrous start to the season, but the Blues haven't been helped by the fact they top the competition for the number of games lost to injury.

Going into round five, the Blues have already had to deal with a range of players being unavailable for a total of 30 games.

And that's not including this week where another three players - Matthew Kreuzer, Matthew Kennedy and Jacob Weitering - will miss through injury.

Compare that with Richmond – the Tigers now have just one player, Daniel Rioli, on their injury list – and you can see the Blues have been badly hit when it comes to options at selection.

The Tigers have lost just nine games to injury across their list. Rioli accounts for four of them, Dion Prestia three, Nick Vlastuin one and Bachar Houli the other.

It hasn't been as smooth for the Blues.

Captain Marc Murphy missed Saturday night's loss to North Melbourne, a last-minute withdrawal after an injury to his left foot that has sidelined him for at least a month.

Last year's best and fairest runner-up Sam Docherty hasn't played and will only appear late in the season – if at all – after a November knee reconstruction.

An ankle injury to Caleb Marchbank in round three threw their under-siege backline into disarray against Collingwood, and the defender will miss at least another three weeks. 

Ruckman Kreuzer and ex-Giant Kennedy missed round two and other new recruits Darcy Lang (ankle) and Matthew Lobbe (quad) haven't played at all.

Add Jarrod Pickett (wrist), Alex Silvagni (hamstring) and Ciaran Byrne (quad) to the casualty list and it's starting to become a trend.

The Blues' season to date has been pulled apart, with analysis on everything from their leadership to their attacking style, from their poor defence to their number of A-graders and the week-to-week form of second-year key position player Weitering.

But the numbers here outline Brendon Bolton's other problem – a lack of consistency in picking his team and restricted flexibility in selection.

The team selected for Saturday's round five clash against West Coast is missing last year's top four from the best and fairest - Murphy, Docherty, Kreuzer and Bryce Gibbs. 

Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley is in a similar boat, with the Magpies ranked equal second with Greater Western Sydney on 28 games lost.

The Pies' pre-season ended optimistically, with the majority of players who battled summer injuries seemingly close to returning.  

But Jamie Elliott has since stalled with a fresh hamstring injury, Daniel Wells can't string together a consistent block of training and Levi Greenwood is overcoming lingering pain from December knee surgery.

While the Pies have turned a corner in the past fortnight with back-to-back wins, there's no doubt they would have preferred more fit players to choose from when they were 0-2.  

At the other end of the spectrum, St Kilda and Port Adelaide haven't been greatly troubled by players unavailable due to injury.

Both clubs have lost only 12 games, although that will increase for the Saints this week with Dylan Roberton (heart issue) unavailable and Rockliff (calf) ruled out for the Power.

Stats provided by Champion Data