Essendon key position talls Zach Reid and Harrison Jones have been ruled out for an extended period of time after suffering respective hamstring and back injuries.

In his second game after returning from a back injury, Reid suffered a hamstring strain in the first quarter of Essendon’s VFL clash against Werribee which will see the 20-year-old ruled out for six weeks.

Jones reported back soreness late last week, with further medical testing showing a stress issue in the young key forward’s back.

GM of Performance Daniel McPherson says both Reid and Jones will now be placed into conservative rehabilitation programs.

“Zach sustained a hamstring injury during his second game back in the VFL,” McPherson said.

“He was scanned and at this stage it’s looking like a six-week return to play timeframe that we’re working towards.

“’Jonesy’ experienced some soreness last Friday at training. He was scanned on Friday afternoon and further investigation was carried out on Monday, which indicated a stress-related issue in his back.

“We’re still putting together the exact plan of what his rehabilitation is going to look like but we need to respect the nature of this injury, so it’ll be a fairly conservative approach for Harry initially. We don’t have a definite timeline at this stage, but it’ll be a medium to long term injury.”

Defender Jordan Ridley is making a steady recovery from a concussion suffered in the Bombers’ match against Port Adelaide.

While automatically ruled out of this week’s contest with Brisbane having suffered a head injury, the 24-year-old is expected to be available for round 10’s Dreamtime at The ‘G clash.

“’Rids’ was involved in an incident during the game against Port Adelaide,” McPherson said.

“He’s recovered well to this point and he’s already into the concussion protocols. With the mandatory 12 day recovery period, he obviously misses this week, but we expect him to play the following week against Richmond.”