Jarrad McVeigh and Kurt Tippett will be looking to prove their fitness at Thursday’s training session in a bid to line up in the round one side to take on Essendon on Saturday.
McVeigh (calf) and Tippett (knee) have both overcome pre-season injury concerns and will be looking to play against the Bombers if they can get through the main session of the week.
General Manager of Football Tom Harley said in the HCF injury update the pair would be given every opportunity to line up for the season opener.
“We have some final hurdles for Jarrad McVeigh and Kurt Tippet to go through but outside of that our boys have had a really good pre-season,” Harley said.
“They have been a bit modified but we will be at close to full strength with the 22 that we put out.”
“It is always a tough discussion to pick your nominal best 22 but we will have a fit and firing 22 that will be ready to go.”
Harley confirmed there were no concerns over the concussion suffered a fortnight ago to Lance Franklin with the star forward a certainty to be facing the Bombers.
“He trained really well on Tuesday after a heavy concussion two weeks ago in Canberra,” Harley said.
“He looks really sharp so he is certainly available to play.
“We have another training session on Thursday morning and we will know our final side then but you can certainly put Buddy in the line-up.”