Essendon will bolster its playing list this week with the return of up to eight experienced senior players to the side.

Despite a strong display from the Bombers’ youth last week, Knights believes the injection of experience will give his team the depth they need to outplay the Western Bulldogs this Friday night.

""We will have up to eight changes to our list this week,"" Knights said.
 
""Dustin Fletcher, Andrew Welsh, Adam Ramanuaskas, Brent Stanton, Mark McVeigh and other senior players will come back this week but there will still be a large proportion of youth in the side because there will be a few senior guys that played last week that won’t play this week.""

Adam McPhee, Jay Nash, Courtney Dempsey and Heath Hocking are among those players that will be rested for the match while Scott Gumbleton will be out for an extended period of time after injuring his hamstring last week.

McPhee is suffering soreness in his legs and, although he could play, the Club will not take any chances with him.
 
Although disappointed for Gumbleton, Knights has rallied the support of the football club behind the budding key-position player and is confident that he will be able to bounce back in better shape than ever before.

""It is devastating for the young man at times because he has been through a lot in his first 12 months,"" Knights said.

""We have spoken about his injury issues and about him being mentally strong for both himself and the group and he is of the mindset that he wants to come back even stronger which is a fantastic attitude to have.

""Although he is a very quiet person, he has a terrific constitution and I think he will bounce back from this and as a club we are going to do everything we can to investigate why this is happening and how we can make sure that is doesn’t happen again.""

Knights is also confident in the progress of Matthew Lloyd’s minor hamstring injury and is confident he will be in top condition prior to round one of the season proper.

""He is progressing on track the way he should be and there is no issue from my perspective as coach of him not being made available for the last two practice matches before Round 1,"" Knights said.
 
""That is still the plan for Matthew and I haven’t heard anything to the contrary from our medical team.

""It would be lovely to have him back as soon as possible but he is on a modified program at this stage. He participated in some running this morning with Mark Cera our rehabilitation coach and from that perspective he will be on a program that is tailored to suit him.

""If he gets two games under his belt before round one it would be fantastic but if he only manages to get one then I am comfortable with that. I’m not going to lost sleep if that was the case.

""Even none would be an option because he is our captain and is a wonderful player but we will deal with that as a match committee as it comes.

""Lloydy is very sensible and very committed person and he understands football and he understands getting his body right and we are not going to put him out there if there is any doubt.""