Essendon midfielder Dylan Clarke is expected to be available for the club’s VFL semi-final against Richmond on Saturday.

Clarke was felled by an accidental knee to the head in the early stages of the Bombers’ elimination final victory over Collingwood on Sunday, but Physical Performance Manager Justin Crow says the on-baller should take his place in the side this week.

“Dylan was actually quite with it mentally after the head knock,” Crow said on the SKINS Injury Update on Tuesday.

“He actually passed his test on game day, but we take these head knocks seriously and he didn’t return to play.

“He’s passed his baseline testing this week, he did a light run today and he’ll warm up with the main VFL training group tomorrow.

“All going well, assuming that he remains symptom free, we’re hopeful he’ll be available this week.”

Crow said he was impressed by the return of Ben McNiece in the win after the defender overcame a minor knee injury suffered in the senior side’s defeat of St Kilda in round 21.

“We thought Ben returned well after his MCL. It took him a few weeks to get to that point, but once he was back in playing footy we thought he did a good job.”

First-year forward Jordan Houlahan didn’t take part in the win after suffering a minor injury at training last week, and the South Australian remains in doubt for the clash with the Tigers.

“Jordan had an incident at training during the week, he’s hurt his hamstring – it’s a minor injury.

“He was withdrawn from the match. He looks unlikely again for this weekend, but we’re just leaving the door slightly open to see how quickly he improves.

No more Bombers have joined Tom Bellchambers and Luke Lavender for off-season surgery and Crow said he is pleased with the strength of the squad heading into the break.

“We have a reasonably healthy list heading into the break.

“We’re setting the group a program to build up their running and football conditioning to be ready to get straight back into some good football training when we return in November.”