Prolific Collingwood midfielder Dane Swan concedes he could come in for some greater attention from opposition sides in coming weeks - starting with Fremantle at the MCG on Saturday - now that his fellow on-baller Scott Pendlebury is sidelined with a knee injury.

While Pendlebury luckily escaped serious injury after getting his knee caught underneath him during the early stages of last week's impressive win in Sydney - the Pies' 2007 best and fairest runner-up will still miss the clash with the Dockers and probably next week's huge Friday night clash against Essendon as well.

Pendlebury has missed just three games in the past three seasons while Swan has played 72 matches in succession, dating back to Round 13, 2006 - exactly three years ago this week.

The pair has been the Magpies' midfield engine room during that time but so often it is Pendlebury that seems to command the greater respect from opposition sides with Swan - perhaps because of awkward running and kicking style - often getting a surprising amount of latitude for a player of his standing in the game.

That was never more evident than in Round 10 when Swan amassed a staggering 48 possessions against Port Adelaide at the MCG when even Port coach Mark Williams admitted afterwards he did not pay Swan as much attention as other Collingwood midfielders because he felt the Pies' reigning best and fairest winner did not hurt opposition teams with his disposal as much as other Pies' players.

Swan has averaged 31.5 possessions per game this season and knows that he will carry extra responsibility in coming weeks with Pendlebury sidelined.

"He is a huge loss because he has probably been our best player this year," Swan said of Pendlebury on Wednesday.

"We haven't played without him that often so we will find out on Saturday how that changes things."

But Swan knows he will not be afforded the same latitude as usual.

"I am expecting someone to run with (tag) me but in saying that Alan (Didak) and Leon (Davis) are also very good players and Shane O'Bree goes unnoticed a lot and does a lot of good work for us so we will see what happens."

Swan said the Pies were relieved Pendlebury's injury was not worse considering how bad it initially looked.

"You don't want to lose good players for any period but the good thing is he will probably only miss one or two matches so hopefully he then has a good run in the latter part of the year."

The Pies have won four in a row and last week's win lifted them into the top four and they will be warm favourites to defeat 15th placed Fremantle on Saturday, particularly with the game being played in Melbourne.

Yet Collingwood, who so often seems to win games when it is underdogs and lose games when it is favourites, has struggled against Fremantle in recent meetings - winning just two of the past six.

And included in those four defeats were losses against Fremantle at the MCG in 2005 and 2006, although the Pies have won the past two meetings in Melbourne.

Swan said he did not know why the Pies often struggled under the burden of favouritism and hoped the team did not suffer a lapse this weekend.

"With the goal we have (to finish in the top four), these are the games we have to win," he said.

"It's not something where we sit down and say we should this game because we like to think we can win every game and it's something I can't explain as to whether we drop that intensity (in games the team is expected to win) but hopefully we won't do that this week."