Melbourne could welcome back ruckman Jake Spencer for Monday's blockbuster clash with Collingwood on Queen's Birthday.
As well as Spencer's return, Melbourne's football operations manager Josh Mahoney said All-Australian big man Max Gawn could be back in action in a fortnight.
Gawn injured his hamstring in round three against Geelong while Spencer suffered a shoulder injury in round five against the Tigers, with Melbourne having to rely on Jack Watts, Cameron Pedersen and Tom McDonald to carry the load.
“Spencer will be available, all things going well, this week,” Mahoney told SEN Breakfast on Tuesday morning.
“That will be a decision at match committee about whether he comes straight in to play or we go with the same structure we’ve had over the last little while.
“Gawn is pushing his case very strongly at the moment. He’s been training pretty strongly now for the last three or four weeks in running, and he is starting to do football work this week.
“He’s probably two weeks away at the moment.”
Mahoney also spoke about Jesse Hogan's return to football, which won't be too far away after having surgery to remove cancer from his testicles.
“He’ll probably start running today,” he said.
“He’s been doing some activities over the past week and he’ll be out on the track today.
“There’s a lot of different components to this one. It’s probably the recovery from his surgery plus we have to look at his preparation over his disjointed first half of this year…there is the mental component as well.
“It’s really in Jesse’s hands, we’ll slowly build him up.
“He’s unlikely for Monday but you never know how quickly he can get up after that.”
