Essendon will be bolstered by the return of defender Michael Hibberd from an ankle injury for Sunday’s match against the Western Bulldogs.

Hibberd has overcome an ankle injury that has seen him miss the last two matches running freely with teammates on Monday.

The 24-year-old defender is expected to take his place in this week’s side.

Club doctor Bruce Reid said he was confident Hibberd had proven he was fit enough to tackle the Dogs.

“I would be very surprised if Hibbo doesn’t play this week,” Reid said.

“He trained well on Saturday and he will fully train this week so we would expect him to play.”

“He couldn’t really push up on Thursday so we decided to take the extra week with him.”

Captain Jobe Watson will learn more about his expected return date later in the week after a meeting with his specialist.

“He is now running up to 22km per hour so we are getting colume into him to hold his base,” Reid said.

“He will have a scan this week to be reviewed by Julian then depending on that we will gradually push him up.”

Big man Tom Bellchambers is expected to spend the next few weeks on the sidelines as he recovers from some ankle soreness.

Bellchambers rolled his ankle recently at training further slowing his progress on the training track.

“Tommy has been a bit sore where he hurt the surface of his ankle and then playing last week he stood on Patty’s foot and rolled his ankle,” Reid said.

“The plan is to back him off for a couple of weeks with the bye coming up and give him a crack to come back in top form for the last few games.”

Despite a knock to the head during the first half of Sunday’s win over Collingwood defender Courtenay Dempsey will line up for his 100^th game against the Dogs this weekend.