Star Essendon forward Jake Stringer has been ruled out of the club’s important clash with Greater Western Sydney at Marvel Stadium on Thursday.

Physical performance manager Justin Crow says the powerful Bomber has been progressing “slowly” and is yet to run since suffering the leg injury in the side’s victory over Hawthorn in round 13.

“Jake is making small steps, but not a big enough leap to start running again. We’re comfortable that he’s not going to get up for this week at this stage after seeing where he is today,” Crow said.

“We’re taking it day by day. Once he can tolerate enough load to hop properly and then run, he’ll do that and build up to play.

“The longer he misses, the longer it takes to build him up, so it’s a bit of a day-to-day proposition.

“He’s showing some signs of improving, but certainly not at a fast-enough rate to be available this week.”

Young Bomber Matt Guelfi is in the mix to line up against the Giants, having recovered well after suffering a nasty knock that sent him flying into Optus Stadium’s LED boundary signage against West Coast last Thursday.

Guelfi was unable to play out the game due to concussion and rib soreness, but Crow said the 21-year-old is making steady progress.

“Matt Guelfi took that blow into the signage on the side of the ground. He was tested for concussion, which he has shown every sign to have recovered from this week with all of our testing.

“He’s also got some soreness through his ribcage, which is improving day by day. He’ll be tested on Wednesday ahead of the match on Thursday in terms of his availability to play.”

Guelfi goes through his paces at The Hangar on Monday. (Image: AFL Photos)

There are also positive signs that emerging key defender Brandon Zerk-Thatcher’s apparent hamstring injury suffered in the VFL on Sunday is not as bad as it first looked.

Zerk-Thatcher failed to return to the field in the impressive 69-point thumping of Port Melbourne, but testing suggests the young Don could still play this week.

“Brandon reported getting a knock to his upper hamstring/glute area and he was helped from the ground,” Crow said.

“All of our testing after the game suggests that that is what happened, that it’s a knock, so we’re quite confident that he will get up for this week following that knock.

“We’ll keep in the back of our minds that these things can present like a strain, so if he doesn’t progress as expected then we’ll get him scanned.

“But at the moment, we’re treating it as a knock to his upper hamstring/glute and we’re really hopeful that he can get up for the next match.”

Onballer Kobe Mutch returned in the win over the Borough after a 10-week stint on the sidelines with a significant hamstring injury and Crow said he got through the contest strongly.

“Kobe played up to the number of minutes and distance that we’d planned.

“He looked quite comfortable in the game and obviously we’ll be tracking his recovery in the next couple of days, but we’re hoping for him to get up and take another step forward in his return to football.” 

The Bombers will face the Giants from 7:20pm on Thursday.