Essendon could see a number of inclusions this weekend if recovering players are able to find match fitness by the Wednesday training session this week.
Michael Hurley, David Myers and Andrew McGrath are poised to take the field in the team's main training session tomorrow and look to state their case for selection this weekend.
The Bombers have been careful in bringing their players back from injury this season, with Physical Performance Manager Justin Crow mentioning that Myers is a player that they didn't want to risk bringing back early.
“We weren’t prepared to have him [David Myers] take it into the game last weekend. The main restriction with it is when he really reaches out and gets up to top speeds, which Dave appears to be able to do early this week," Crow told essendonfc.com.au.
“So he’ll be in training tomorrow and we’ll be watching him closely to see if he’s ready for selection.”
McGrath suffered a calf strain in Round 7 and has missed the last two games, but is said to be training well with the team recently and team selectors have been watching keenly.
Hurley's hamstring injury has been dealt with promptly despite it being a minor issue and Crow says that they could see the 27-year-old take on the Giants on Saturday.
"Hurls did a good running session on the weekend and he ran again yesterday," Crow explained.
“We’ll be looking to see how much of training he’s ready to complete with a view to make an assessment on whether or not we make him available this weekend or not.”
Joe Daniher's injury is coming along slowly, as Crow says the Bombers are taking a cautious approach to their star forward.
No timeline has been set for Daniher's return.
“With Joe we’re taking our time and being really thorough with all of his muscles around his groin area,” Crow said.
“Once he’s symptom-free, the physios will get him back up and running. At the moment he’s doing a lot of work on his core stability and strength around his hips and his pelvis, which will be really important for him in the long term.”
