Essendon duo Dyson Heppell and Cale Hooker will be given until later in the week to prove their fitness for Saturday’s clash against Carlton at the MCG.

Club doctor Bruce Reid said Heppell had to show signs of full functionality in his hand before he could take to the field against the Blues.

“With Dyson, we won’t make up our mind until later in the week but surgically the operation went very successfully,” Reid said.

“These days they put a plate and some lock screws so it won’t dislodge. But mechanically as far as the fracture goes, that is not the problem.

“Because they get swelling then it depends on the functional movement of the hand later in the week. So we won’t make a decision on that until Thursday or maybe even Friday.”

Reid said the club would ensure Hooker passed all the testing he was required to before lining up ahead of the club’s final home-and-away match.

“Cale had a short period of loss of consciousness then he jumped up thought he could play on and of course he couldn’t,” Reid said.

“He has recovered extremely well, so he is as good as gold and he will be having a run today.

“In this day we do a COG sport which is computer testing and he will sit that today and pass that.”

Elliott Kavanagh suffered a minor hamstring strain in Friday night’s VFL loss to Geelong and is expected to miss approximately the next two weeks of training.

Tayte Pears will have surgery to repair a shoulder injury as he continues to recover from surgery to his achillies a fortnight ago.

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