Essendon youngster Jordan Ridley has suffered a blow in his push for an early season debut, with a stress fracture in his back set to sideline the defender for up to 12 weeks.

โ€œJordan Ridley had some back pain last week, obviously given his age we were pretty keen to find out what was going on,โ€ Essendon High Performance Manager Justin Crow said.

โ€œUnfortunately Jordan has a partial stress fracture in his back, which in one sense gives us a chance to let it heal because it hasnโ€™t broken through, so weโ€™re going to take that opportunity.

โ€œHeโ€™s going to have six to eight weeks off running and then build back up into the season.

RELATED: JORDAN RIDLEY DRAFT PROFILE

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โ€œItโ€™s normally between two and four weeks [after the initial six to eight weeks] to build up to play.

โ€œThe good news for Jordan is he really only needs to avoid impact โ€“ which means runningโ€ฆ so heโ€™ll be able to do a lot of weights over the next couple of months.โ€

Ridley, pick No.21 in the 2016 National Draft, finished with 10 disposals in his first taste of senior footy, last month's JLT Series clash with the Gold Coast Suns.