Essendon forward Stewart Crameri is expected to miss Sunday’s match against Port Adelaide at Etihad Stadium with an ankle injury.

Crameri left the field after rolling his ankle during the third quarter of Thursday night’s win over West Coast and did not return to the field.

“Stewart has an uphill battle this week to get up for the game,” Football Operations Manager Steve Alessio said.

“If you look after ankles well sometimes they can come good pretty quickly but at the moment he is facing an uphill battle to play Port Adelaide.”

“We are hopeful that if all goes well he will get up but he will probably miss.”

In more positive news for the club Dustin Fletcher is expected to return from groin soreness that has kept him out of the side since Round 12.

The 38-year-old veteran travelled with the team to Perth last round and is expected to take his place in Sunday’s team.

“We are managing him really conservatively, he is not the youngest guy on the track but Fletch knows how to manage his body he has done that for years,” he said.

"We just want to be 110% sure with Fletch so we are looking forward to him putting his hand up for this week.”

Heath Hocking is continuing his recovery from a calf strain that will see him miss Sunday’s match against the Power.

“We will manage that like we do any other soft tissue injury, look after it and hopefully the week after this he will be alright,” Allessio said.

Alessio said the limited injury list place the team in a good position heading into the last nine rounds of the season.

"It has been a great approach from our high performance staff the way they have gone about looking after the players this year,”

“You never know what is around the corner, footy is a dynamic game and there is a lot of injuries that can take place.”