Essendon star Joe Daniher has had an injury setback in his bid to return to footy.

The forward suffered a calf strain while training which is expected to sideline him for 10 to 14 days.

Essendon head of medical services David Rundle provided the update via the club website.

โ€œDuring our rehabilitation skills session on the weekend, unfortunately Joe felt some soreness in the calf, and we had that imaged (scanned) yesterday which confirmed a minor calf strain so that will mean he is off running for about 10 to 14 days,โ€ Rundle said.

Daniher has not played at AFL level since Round 9 last year.

In other injury news at Essendon, defender Conor McKenna (fractured hand) remains a chance to face the Western Bulldogs this weekend.

โ€œAs we know, Conor fractured his hand during our game against North Melbourne. He is a pretty tough character and managed to play out the game, so heโ€™ll have surgery today where theyโ€™ll insert a plate to reduce that fracture,โ€ Rundle said.

โ€œObviously, this week is a tight turnaround ahead of our game on Friday night so weโ€™ll see how he responds to the operation and weโ€™ll assess his functional ability later in the week before we decide whether he can play or not.โ€