Essendon general manager of football Josh Mahoney says the Bombers’ list is looking “really healthy” seven weeks out from the start of the 2022 season.

Since the Christmas break, the Bombers have had the majority of their playing group on full training loads, with only a small group on modified programs.

“Overall we are in a really healthy position with our squad with a big number of players training,” Mahoney said.  

“We got a really important block of training into the guys pre-Christmas and over the Christmas break but then there were a few COVID interruptions over the first couple of weeks into the new year, which was not unique to us, which I think most clubs experienced.

“But the last few weeks we’ve got the players back on track and pleasingly we've only got a small group of players that are currently not on full training.”

In the rehab group, veteran Michael Hurley is progressing well in his recovery from a hip infection that saw the 31-year-old miss the entire 2021 season.

No timeframe has been placed on Hurley’s return to football, but the defender has resumed outdoor running and is slowly building up his training loads.

“Since Christmas, ‘Hurls’ has been progressively building up his running loads outside and there hasn't been any hiccups as yet,” Mahoney said.  

“He's taking on all the loads, recovering well and we'll just continue to step that up and watch how he reacts to it. But all things are looking positive for Hurls at the moment.”

Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti joins Hurley on the sidelines, with the star forward suffering a minor calf injury at the end of last year.

“’Walla’ had a slight calf injury just before Christmas, which modified the training he could do over the break,” Mahoney said.

“He's still in the rehab training at the moment. He's a little bit behind the guys physically and needs to do a bit of work to rehab and to get physically ready to go to join the main group again in the near future.”

Harry Jones and Archie Perkins are also on modified programs but are both close to returning to the full group by the end of the week.

Jones has recovered well from the season-ending foot injury he suffered last year but slightly tweaked his ankle last week.

Perkins had a really good pre-Christmas training block but has missed a week of training through a minor calf injury.

The Bombers have proactively managed young defender Zach Reid after he suffered a minor foot injury, but the 19-year-old has recovered well from the back injury that sidelined him last season.

“Zach has recovered really well from his back injury which he had last year. He's had early onset of some foot soreness, which we got on to pretty quickly,” Mahoney said.

“As he is such a young player, we have been able to pull back his training and his program was very modified over before Christmas and over the Christmas break.

“He is now outside and running and we're just slowly building up his running loads but he's progressing well.”

The Bombers put in a solid month of training prior to the Christmas break, which allowed them to come back ready for match simulation and last week's two-day training camp in Mount Macedon.

After missing large parts of last season due to injury, Mahoney said it had been great to see the likes of Andy McGrath and Dylan Shiel return to full training.

“I think the overall intensity and the quality of training has definitely increased as we have more numbers on the track and have done more game-style practice,” Mahoney said.  

“But it's pleasing to see some guys who have missed some big chunks of football last year in Andy McGrath, Dylan Shiel, Jye Caldwell and Sam Draper, all have completed nearly every session during this pre-season, which gives them the best chance to have a good year.

“A number of guys, almost 25 players, have completed every training session during this period of time, which puts us in a good position.”

Mahoney said the Bombers were making the most of having the majority of the squad on the track, as COVID disruptions could impact the club at any time.

“It’s important that we anticipate that we're going to have some disruptions through either players having COVID or being close contacts to COVID,” Mahoney said.

“So it's really important that they continue to get good loads into them in terms of training when they have the opportunity in the lead-up to the season.”