Key Essendon players Michael Hurley, Jobe Watson and Dyson Heppell are close to resuming full training ahead of next month’s NAB Challenge.

Hurley and Watson underwent shoulder reconstructions last year and have been joining in the majority of training.

The final stage will see the two players join in full contact drills and Worsfold said both his All-Australian defender and his Captain are getting close to that point.

“In terms of full contact he’s (Hurley) not far off that, so he’ll start to build that in now,” he said.

“Both he and Jobe have just about got the all-clear to do full-training.”

The Club has taken a cautious approach to Dyson Heppell’s pre-season, but expects him to be back in full training next week.

“He had a bit of soreness that he carried through the second half of last year and it didn’t really settle in the games against the Irish, so we just decided to help it settle,” he said.

“We’re pretty confident that it’s not going to be a drama.

“We rested him a little bit pre-Christmas and then he came back and did a couple of runs and there was some slight awareness still, so we decided that rather than training him right up until Christmas and then resting him for two weeks, we thought we’d give him a three to four week rest.

“So we hope that as he builds up his training that’s resolved.”

The Bombers first NAB Challenge match will be on Sunday February 28^th against Carlton.