Essendon draftee Alex Morgan will spend the next month away from the main group as part of a plan to prepare his body for the rigours of senior football.

Morgan suffered a significant hamstring injury last season while playing in the TAC Cup with Oakleigh Chargers.

He returned to play in the Grand Final victory and got through most of the pre-season after he arrived at the Bombers.

But the Club has decided to take the time now to build his body up, so Morgan can cope with the demands of the game down the track.

“We knew when Alex arrived at the Club that he’d had a history of hamstring problems that year before,” High Performance Manager Justin Crow said. 

“He got tight in his hamstring last week – it was a minor issue, so minor in fact, he was back doing six kilometre running today.

“Nevertheless, we’re going to take a long-term approach with Alex – take him out of the program for four or five weeks and look to build his robustness.

“We’re really confident we can get some good work into him, build him into a stronger athlete and then get him back in for the rest of the season.”

Shaun McKernan was in excellent form in the VFL’s side final practice match before the start of the season. 

The 25 year old was left out of the senior line-up to help him rediscover the form he showed at the end of last season.

And that is exactly what the former Crow did, kicking six goals.

But his game was cut short when he hurt his ankle in a marking contest.

“We had that scanned today – we’re still waiting on the result – however given his progression so far we’d be optimistic there would be a glimmer of hope for this week,” Crow said. 

“If not, we’d be hoping to get him going pretty quickly after that.”

Orazio Fantasia was helped from the field during the win over Melbourne after sustaining a knock to the shin.

He later returned to play out the match and he’s been given the all clear to play against Port Adelaide.

James Polkinghorne is also available for selection after overcoming a calf injury.