Hawthorn veteran Jack Gunston has earned a reprieve for Sunday's bout with North Melbourne, while reigning best and fairest winner Will Day's return date has been locked in.
Gunston was omitted for the Hawks' Round 3 clash with Geelong after a slow start to the season, with the triple premiership forward not recalled in recent weeks despite spearhead Mitch Lewis' absence through injury.
Lewis was unable to be cleared to face the Kangaroos as he continues to deal with a hamstring injury sustained in the loss to the Cats, with Gunston one of three potential inclusions for this weekend.
Coach Sam Mitchell confirmed Gunston will line up for his third game of 2024 when the Hawks face North Melbourne at Marvel Stadium on Sunday afternoon, with no forced changes to be made at this stage.
"I'm really pleased with Jack. Off the field he's been fantastic, regardless of how he's going on the field," Mitchell told media on Friday.
"Everytime someone's asked me, I've said that. His influence on the group has been fantastic.
"I think his body is going well. He'll play this week, we're looking forward to having him set us up with a bit more leadership. We just lacked a couple of wise heads last week to handle the pressure."
Wingman Harry Morrison and defender Jai Serong have also been named as potential inclusions on the extended interchange in Mitchell's side, with Seamus Mitchell, Conor Nash, Josh Ward, Connor Macdonald and Sam Butler also on standby.
The aforementioned Day has been cleared for a return next week for the Hawks' Round 7 meeting with Sydney after overcoming a foot issue first hampered in the pre-season.
While Day has been "dearly missed", the young midfielder has still managed to have an impact from the interchage most weekends as a helping hand to the coaching group.
"Daysy is nearly back. He'll be available for selection next week. We're looking forward to having him back," Mitchell added.
"He's done a great job in coaching some of the parts of his role that he excels at. We've seen some growth in our collective brain power of our group without Daysy.
"We haven't been able to put that into actual action and make it performance-based just yet, but the role that Daysy plays is so effective and a lot of teams have a player that plays like him.
"We've missed him dearly, but you can't rely on individual players."
Day could be joined by Lewis and defender Changkuoth Jiath as inclusions for the Swans game, with the latter having also been sidelined for the start of the season with a hamstring injury.
Small forward Luke Breust, rookie Nick Watson and veteran Chad Wingard could all be available in a fortnight also.
