Essendon midfielder David Zaharakis has been cleared of serious damage to his knee and will line up against Richmond at the MCG on Friday night.

Zaharakis hobbled from the field after he looked to hurt his knee in the closing stages of Saturday night’s loss to Sydney.

Scans revealed no damage to the knee with the midfielder showing no signs of concern during Tuesday morning’s main training session.

“David went down with a fair bit of pain as he knocked his knee as he went down but he is fine,” club doctor Bruce Reid said.

“In fact he will train today and we would be very surprised if he doesn’t get through today and will be clear to play.”

Jake Carlisle has also been cleared of any damage after he had scans on his hip on Monday afternoon.

Reid said Carlisle was expected to be fine to line up against the Tigers on Friday night.

“It was just precautionary, he just landed and twisted his hip so we just wanted to clear that there was nothing seriously wrong,” he said.

In further encouraging signs Joe Daniher joined his teammates on the training track as he returns from a clavicle.

“Joe is doing excellently, he had an undisplaced fracture to his clavicle which is you don’t play it is six to eight weeks but once they are plated then basically as soon as it settles they will be able to play,” Reid said.

“He will train today but we will avoid any contact at this stage.”

Patrick Ambrose is expected to only miss the one match against Richmond after surgery to repair a hairline fracture to his jaw.

“He had a hairline crack of his jaw and just to make sure if he gets another knock it is stable they plated it so that it doesn’t move at all,” Reid said.

“The recovery is very quick so he would miss a maximum of two weeks.”

Captain Jobe Watson will not return for Friday night’s match but is expected to take on West Coast the following weekend.

“He will have his final MRI on Wednesday, see the surgeon on Thursday and then we will take him top end speed off the mark and kicking long,” Reid said.

“They are the only two things we have not done at this stage.”