Lake, 29, has struggled with a knee injury this season and was sent back to play for the Dogs' VFL affiliate Williamstown after round six, to regain form and fitness.
Eade had previously expressed a desire for his star defender to play three games in the VFL before returning to the AFL team - he has played just one - but the coach has been pleasantly surprised by Lake's progress.
"He's doing a bit more running now and a bit more speed work. I was thinking that he probably might be another couple [of weeks], but he might be [available] as soon as next week," Eade said from Whitten Oval on Friday.
"He's improving and he's worked very hard this week. I just had a chat to him then and he said that it's the best its felt."
Lake's return would be a huge boost for Eade who has turned to the versatile Dale Morris to do the job on Richmond forward Jack Riewoldt on Sunday in the absence of Lake and fellow key defender Tom Williams.
The Bulldogs called up defender Ryan Hargrave, who has missed all season recovering from a foot stress fracture, after just one VFL game, ahead of fellow backman James Mulligan who drops out of the extended squad along with Mitch Wallis and Nathan Djerrkura.
Dylan Addison and Tom Liberatore also come into the team for an important clash for the Dogs who are looking to snap a three-game losing streak without star forwards Barry Hall and Shaun Higgins as well as Lake and Williams.
"They're at full strength and we're a bit undermanned, but having said that I think the players have maintained their belief. We need to win. That's the bottom line - we need to win this week," Eade said.
"We're certainly confident like every week. We've had some really good play. I think we've won [almost] as many quarters as Collingwood, but we've just got to aim for consistency.
"I think we've just got to maintain the faith and maintain that work rate for four quarters. If we can do that we'll be ok."
Eade looked anything but a coach under pressure when he spoke to the media after a training session in which the players matched their coach's buoyant mood.
"I think you can tell from training that the morale is still up, the enthusiasm is still there and they've still got a spark about them and a spring in their step," he replied when asked if the Dogs' slow start to the year had caused morale to dip.
"We just need to hang tough. Teams go through this and individuals go through some rough patches and we've just got to come out at the end of it.
"There's a real culture of 'everyone's in it together'. There's no blame, there's no pointing fingers - we've got some areas that we've got to address and we've spoken about that openly and honestly."
