Essendon forward Josh Green won’t play against Geelong this Sunday because of a foot injury.

But the former Brisbane player remains on track to be available for selection for the round one blockbuster against Hawthorn. 

Green was restricted to 11 games in his final season at the Lions because of a foot problem, but this latest issue relates to his other foot. 

“Josh got his good foot stomped on and because of his history of foot issues we’ve gone super conservative with that,” High Performance Manager Justin Crow said.

“We put him in a boot for a couple of days because he had some bone bruising from the stomp.

“He’s out of that now but we want to build him back up really smartly so he won’t be available to play this weekend.”

Cale Hooker is continuing his steady build-up to the season.

He’s completing most of training and is expected to feature in his first competitive hit-out of the year in a VFL practice match next week.

Fellow key position player, Michael Hurley will need to get through training this week if he’s to be considered for Sunday’s JLT Community Series match against Geelong.

Hurley injured his ankle late in the match against Gold Coast.

“’Hurls’ is progressing reasonably well from his issue in the last JLT match,” Crow said.

“We’re waiting for the main session on Thursday for 'Hurls' to demonstrate that he can impress us and be pain free on that day.

“There is still some optimism that he’ll be ok to play the JLT game.”

Tom Bellchambers is making progress in his recovery from knee surgery.

The Essendon ruckman has begun joining in most of training and will continue to build his fitness base over the coming weeks.

Aaron Francis, who injured his ankle early last month, felt some discomfort at training this week, but scans cleared him of any significant damage and he’s expected to resume full training shortly.