Essendon forwards Jake Stringer and David Zaharakis are set to return to playing in the next fortnight after "turning a corner" in their injury rehabilitation.

An Achilles injury has ruled out Stringer for round one, while off-season PCL surgery has also delayed Zaharakis’ start to the season.

Head of high performance Sean Murphy said the pair were well placed to build game time in the Bombers’ upcoming VFL practice matches.

“Jake Stringer had a bit of an interruption to his pre-season early on, but the last three to four weeks we’ve turned a corner and been able to get some really good loads into him. He’s pulled up really well, so we’re expecting him to continue to build his loads,” Murphy said.

“We want him to come back at 90 - 100 per cent fitness, so we’ve set him up to have success for the whole season. We’ll see him play game time over the next couple of weeks.”

“‘Zacka’ (Zaharakis) is coming back from that PCL surgery he had in the off-season. He’s tracking really well. The last two or three weeks he’s turned a corner and he’s well ahead of schedule to the point where we’re discussing game time.

“Over the next couple of weeks he’ll keep building his loads, especially the high intensity (work) and the acceleration and deceleration data we want to see. He’s pushing his case to play some footy over the next two to three weeks.”

Second-year player Lachlan Johnson featured in his first hitout in the red and black on Friday, playing limited minutes in a VFL practice match against Richmond.

Murphy said the Next Generation Academy graduate had worked hard over pre-season.

“Lachlan Johnson was a feel-good story out of the weekend, playing some minutes against Richmond in the VFL practice game. That was really valuable,” he said.

“He had his first little hitout for the club since he’s come here, coming off that ACL and having a few little interruptions post that. COVID wasn’t ideal for him, but he’s certainly attacked his pre-season and now he’ll increase his minutes against Box Hill this weekend to then play full game time over the next three to four weeks.”

On the eve of round one, Murphy also touched on some standouts from the Bombers’ pre-season, including Nik Cox’s incredible distance covered in the AAMI Community Series, Nick Hind’s instant impact, Brayden Ham’s body transformation and Zach Merrett’s flawless preparation.

Watch the performance update below.