Essendon ruckman Matthew Leuenberger looks set to return to the Bombers' line-up for their clash with Carlton on Sunday after overcoming a hamstring strain.
Leuenberger sustained the injury during the JLT Community Series but training with the main group on Tuesday morning, and is set to be a handy inclusion to compliment Shaun McKernan.
"Leuenberger's ready to go. He passed everything pretty much late last week, so he will have a full week this week and be ready to go," coach John Worsfold said.
"We think [his inclusion will be] important. McKernan's done really well, but it still has meant we've been down on hit-outs and well down on hit-outs to advantage and potentially clearances.
"We still think having a classy ruckman like [Tom] Bellchambers or Leuenberger available would be helpful to us."
Bellchambers is nearing selection after playing the past three VFL practice games after off-season knee surgery, although Worsfold believes the big man may need another week in the VFL before coming back into contention.
"With Tom we're really just weighing up whether we think he's done enough to now play AFL footy at the level we'll be expecting him to," he said.
"My gut feel is we think he'll need another hit-out to round out a full game and full match loads. He's been building up towards that without really hitting it yet."
In further news, Bombers utility Ben Howlett has been ruled out of Essendon match on Sunday, after suffering a hamstring strain in their round two victory over Brisbane.
