Bombers fans can expect Zach Merrett to put his hand up for selection this week after making sharp progress in his recovery from concussion.

The star midfielder was knocked out in a collision with Adelaide’s Richard Douglas, but has passed milestones with flying colours since the incident.

Essendon Physical Performance Manager Justin Crow said the concussion had been taken “really seriously” and Merrett had recovered well.

“He didn’t return to the game, because he had a loss of consciousness,” Crow said on Tuesday.

“He was very good minutes after the incident and he passed his (cognitive) test yesterday, which is a really good sign.

“He is asymptomatic at the moment and he’ll join in training without contact tomorrow and all going well he’s looking to be available for selection for the weekend.”

Fans are anxiously awaiting the return of speedy forward Orazio Fantasia from a niggling knee injury, and Crow said his main concern is ensuring Fantasia will be able to play at his explosive best.

“Orazio started his running last week…he’s running unrestricted,” he said.

“The challenge with Orazio is to get enough conditioning into him given how much of a high-volume, high-speed player he is.

“Orazio will do part of the session tomorrow with the main group, but we’ll be making decisions on his level of conditioning before returning into a real match.”

Tough midfielder David Myers and small defender Ben McNiece missed Essendon’s first-round victory over Adelaide, but Crow said neither player was far off returning to full fitness.

“McNiece is tracking well, again he’ll do a large part of the session tomorrow,” Crow said.

“With his hamstring tendon niggle, we really want to make sure we get that as good as we can before we put him back in.

“He won’t be available this weekend, but he’ll be pushing hard to become available the following week.

“(Myers) took a couple of days to get going, because of his calf tightness.

“Given where he’s at, he will also not be available this week. We’ll be putting him back in once he’s ready.”

A broken wrist also delayed defender Patrick Ambrose’s start to the season, and Crow said he would be seeing a specialist on Wednesday to address his wound.

“He’s done some running, but without sweating because of a risk of wound infection. 

“We’ll make sure that once that wound is clear and the surgeon is happy we’ll get a better idea about his time frame.

“We’re hoping to get him running and get some work back into him later this week and go from there.”

The respective recoveries of midfielders Travis Colyer (foot), Kobe Mutch (knee) and Jayden Laverde (hamstring) are all reportedly on track, with the latter two set to play in the VFL team’s opening game against Frankston on April 7.

“The plan for them has been for them to return to the VFL in round one. They’ll have a really good hit-out later this week to make sure they’re ready for that match,” Crow said.

Crow said there had been no other concerns out of either match from the senior and VFL sides last weekend, and is anticipating a healthy list in the coming weeks.

“Out of both the AFL and VFL games – fortunately apart from Zach’s concussion – we got through unscathed, so it’s a really good result for us heading into this weekend.

“While we’ve got a number of players out, we’re looking to see most return in the next one to two weeks.”