Melbourne could welcome back ruckman Jake Spencer for Monday's blockbuster clash with Collingwood on Queen's Birthday.
As well as Spencer's return, Melbourne's football operations manager Josh Mahoney said All-Australian big man Max Gawn could be back in action in a fortnight.
Gawn injured his hamstring in round three against Geelong while Spencer suffered a shoulder injury in round five against the Tigers, with Melbourne having to rely on Jack Watts, Cameron Pedersen and Tom McDonald to carry the load.
โSpencer will be available, all things going well, this week,โ Mahoney told SEN Breakfastย on Tuesday morning.
โThat will be a decision at match committee about whether he comes straight in to play or we go with the same structure weโve had over the last little while.
โGawn is pushing his case very strongly at the moment. Heโs been training pretty strongly now for the last three or four weeks in running, and he is starting to do football work this week.
โHeโs probably two weeks away at the moment.โ
Mahoney also spoke about Jesse Hogan's return to football, which won't be too far away after having surgery to remove cancer from his testicles.
โHeโll probably start running today,โ he said.
โHeโs been doing some activities over the past week and heโll be out on the track today.
โThereโs a lot of different components to this one. Itโs probably the recovery from his surgery plus we have to look at his preparation over his disjointed first half of this yearโฆthere is the mental component as well.
โItโs really in Jesseโs hands, weโll slowly build him up.
โHeโs unlikely for Monday but you never know how quickly he can get up after that.โ
