Essendon is awaiting specialist advice before determining the significance of an ankle injury sustained by Jayden Laverde.

The 20 year old injured his ankle during the second half of the match against Geelong on Sunday.

“Jayden got clipped over the head while marking the ball in the air and he landed so awkwardly that his boot snapped,” High Performance Manager Justin Crow said.

“He’s got an injury to the inside of his ankle and also an injury to the flexor retinaculum, which is a sheet that goes across the front of the ankle.

“The first part of that injury is only of moderate concern for us but the flexor retinaculum is something we rarely see so we’re getting an opinion from a specialist about the best way forward in managing that.”

Cale Hooker and Tom Bellchambers are expected to play in a VFL practice match this Friday.

The pair have increased their training loads steadily in recent weeks and the game will be their first competitive hit-out of the pre-season.

“We’re expecting Cale to be ready to play pretty much all of that match, whereas Tom is more likely to be on a managed time load,” Crow said. 

Aaron Francis is closer to full fitness after getting through the majority of the VFL side’s session last week.

“Aaron got through 80-90% of the match in the end,” Crow said.

“He got thrown in a sling tackle and jarred his ankle a little bit but kept playing. 

“He then jarred his hip landing, but apart from those little incidents in the game, he’s going ok.”