Matthew Knights this afternoon confirmed Brent Stanton will play in Friday night's NAB Cup semi-final against Collingwood after successfully completing training.
Knights said Stanton is in excellent physical condition and ready to go despite spending three weeks on the sidelines because of a quadricep injury.
“Stanton has an enormous fitness base, not only from the pre-season but from the past four years. He is operating off a huge base,” Knights said.
“He is also very different to a young player like Alwyn Davey who came in last week. We only expected Alwyn to play 30 or 40 minutes because he hasn’t got anywhere near the training base that Stanton has. We really would expect Stanton to come in and play 60 to 70 minutes.”
The 22-year-old has yet to participate in a competitive match this season but Knights believes his return is timely with Dustin Fletcher and Andrew Lovett set to be rested and fellow midfielder Mark McVeigh ruled out by injury.
“We are going to be a pretty young side this week so it will be good to have another player of Stanton's calibre coming into the senior team,” Knights said.
“Importantly, he will get some good game time into his body ahead of Round 1. That is the most vital part of him coming back this weekend is to actually play some game time and get prepared.”
Knights promised a competitive battle against one of the Bombers fiercest rivals with both sides wanting to book a place in the NAB Cup Grand Final.
“It is going to be a big game because it is going to draw a relatively big crowd and there is going to be that rivalry which is always evident when Collingwood and Essendon play,” he said.
“It is going to be a really big game for our club and we are going to be going out and endeavour to win the game with the troops we put out there.
“It is a lovely build up to have in the lead up to Round 1, to play a team that are in form who are up and going and we see this match as great preparation.
“Obviously Collingwood were convincing winners against Richmond and it shows they are in good form but I think we will be better again this week.
“I think we will have to be a fair bit better than we were last week but we have what it takes to make the game a spirited contest.”
