Forward Will Snelling will miss the next few weeks after succumbing to a calf strain in the days leading up to Essendon’s round one match against Geelong.

The 24-year-old, who is fresh off a third-place finish in the 2021 Crichton Medal count, missed the Dons’ season opener after reporting calf tightness which in turn proved to be something more serious.

Head of high performance Sean Murphy said Snelling had entered a rehabilitation program and will miss the next couple of games.

“‘Snell’s’ unfortunately presented with a bit of calf tightness early in the week and that showed up as a little calf strain,” Murphy told Dons Digital’s Liberty Financial Performance Update.

“We’ll work through that and put him in the rehab process, and he’ll be a few weeks now to build up.”

The news is worse for midfielder/forward Kyle Langford, who’ll miss months of football after severely straining his hamstring while leading for a mark in the opening term.

Langford will proceed with an external consultation process to determine the most appropriate recovery route.

“‘Langers’ early on in the game had that significant hamstring strain,” Murphy said.

“That’ll hold him out for quite a while now and we’ll consult a few people on what we do here, but unfortunately we won’t see him for a few months now.”

In more positive news, forward Aaron Francis has put his best forward to be available for AFL selection after a strong performance in Essendon’s VFL practice match win against Geelong.

Murphy said Francis performed strongly and passed all the necessary fitness tests to be available for match practice.

“‘Franc’ got through training and proved his fitness and continued on in the VFL game and had no issues in that knee,” he said.

“By all reports, he built up over the game and had a pretty good output.”

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