Adelaide Crows forward Mitch McGovern to miss AFL grand final

Adelaide forward Mitch McGovern has lost his battle against a hamstring injury and won't play in the AFL grand final.

McGovern has been ruled of out Saturday's premiership decider against Richmond after sitting out chunks of Adelaide's training on Wednesday.

About 10,000 fans were at Adelaide Oval for the Crows' training session on Wednesday - the club's last public appearance on home soil ahead of the grand final.

Most eyes were focused on McGovern, who missed Adelaide's preliminary final win because of a hamstring strain.

After showing no obvious discomfort during the initial phase of the 90-minute training session, McGovern didn't participate in end-to-end drills.

The 22-year-old then rejoined his teammates for goalkicking practice at the tail end of the session.

"He hasn't come up," Crows coach Don Pyke told the crowd in a brief on-field interview after training.

Adelaide chief executive Andrew Fagan said it was a devastating blow for McGovern.

"Mitch needed to get through today's session and as Pykey said, he didn't quite pull up," Fagan told reporters.

"It's a sad story for Gov. But one man down, another man up."

McGovern's fitness was shaping as the sole selection headache for Adelaide, who will enter the MCG as warm favourites to claim the club's first premiership since 1998.

He was replaced by Andy Otten in their preliminary final team and the experienced utility is expected to retain his spot for the grand final.