A raft of regular Bulldogs are a chance to feature in Saturday night’s Round 1 clash with North Melbourne at Marvel Stadium.
Ed Richards, Bailey Dale and Rhylee West will need to get through main training on Thursday before putting their hand up to be selected.
The trio have been in main training for over a week, having missed the clash against Hawthorn in Tasmania a fortnight ago.
Laith Vandermeer is also expected to be available for selection after recovering from concussion in that fixture, while skipper Marcus Bontempelli remains several weeks away as he recovers from a calf setback sustained in the same practice match.
“Although Marcus had low level acute symptoms at the time, both scans and clinical findings after the game confirmed a complex calf injury that involve parts of the calf that are prone to having recurrent issues,” Head of Sports Medicine Chris Bell said.
“It’s because of this that we need to be very calculated with his conservative management plan, but he has been progressing well since his injury.
“He has started his rehab and is back on the track, so we will update his return-to-play plan over the coming weeks but can expect to see him back in the next 5-6 weeks.”
Defensive duo Liam Jones and Jason Johannisen are tracking well following their respective hamstring injuries.
“Both Liam and JJ have continued to progress well following their high-grade hamstring injuries,” Bell said.
“They are completing a significant amount of running reconditioning and are both progressing towards higher speed running across the next two weeks.
“We will then consolidate a block of unrestricted football training, with the current expectation that they return to availability in the next 4-6 weeks.”
Adam Treloar is also closing in on a return to play.
“Adam had multiple minor niggles across the December and January period that led to him missing a big portion of his pre-season training. We are conscious to make sure that we facilitate a base of training that allows Adam to consistently perform,” Bell said.
“He has started to build a nice base of consistent training and will continue to execute a pre-season football conditioning model across the next 3-4 weeks.”
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