Troy Chaplin suffers a break in his hand in Port Adelaide's pre-season loss to the Blues and is expected to miss a month.

Power coach Mark Williams says Chaplin's absence will mean a re-think of Port Adelaide's defence.

"Preparing the backline for round one without Troy will be difficult," Williams said.

"Troy is an important player to us. Toby Thurstans will play next week so that helps us, but it doesn't get them all together before the start of the season."