Essendon defender Mark Baguley will miss the rest of the season, but ruckman Matthew Leuenberger is a chance to line-up this week.
Baguley hasn’t played since round 11 because of a knee complaint.
After consultations with his surgeon it was decided the best course of action was to sit out the remainder of the year.
“The advice Mark and the Club have got is that he’s better off to do a longer term rehab and not try and get up this year,” High Performance Manager Justin Crow said.
“Mark has embarked on that journey as we speak.”
Leuenberger played out last week’s match against West Coast but was severely hampered by a knee problem.
The former Brisbane Lions player was sent in for scans, but the results have been positive.
“Matthew Leuenberger took a knock to his knee in the game – the knock came from the outside,” Crow said.
“Obviously at the time he was able to get through the game but we were quite concerned afterwards about his knee so we had it scanned.
“Fortunately for Matthew, he’s been cleared of any major structural damage.
“He has some bone bruising in his knee which will put him in doubt for this week.
“The physios are throwing everything at him at the moment to try and get him up but we’d say the most likely scenario is Matthew would be pushing for the week afterwards.”
Fellow ruckman Mark Jamar is set for a longer stay on the sidelines.
Jamar will serve a one match ban for striking, but a hamstring injury will keep him out for an extended period.
“Unfortunately there is some tendon involvement there which means it’s not a ‘2-3 weeker’, it’ll be longer than that," Crow said.
“Obviously with the state of the season, we’re going to do everything we can to try and get Mark back to play some more football.”
In better news for the Bombers Patrick Ambrose is participating in full contact training after missing the match against the Eagles with a back complaint.
The defender is expected to be available for selection this week.
Gach Nyuon got a knock to his ‘hip pointer’ early in the VFL side’s match on Saturday.
He sat out for the rest of the game and the Club is hopeful he’ll be available this week.
Ryan Crowley and Jonathan Simpkin will miss one more week as they near full recovery from their hamstring injuries.