Mark Mercuri is a doubtful starter for Essendon's clash with Fremantle this Sunday. Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy admitted his star half forward was still under a cloud prior to training this afternoon. He did however confirm that full back Dustin Fletcher and Sean Wellman were certain starter. “I would think Dustin Fletcher would play but Mercuri is doubtful. If Mercuri is 80 / 20 I won’t play him,” Sheedy said.

Sheedy also told reporters that Adam Ramanauskas will be given as much time as he needs to fully recover from surgery. “We never expected Adam to be a week away and the most important thing for him is that he gets well. If that means he is another month away then so be it. We have to make do without him and if we can do that and he comes back and sits on the bench then we will know we have a good footy team,” Sheedy said.

Sheedy didn’t pull any punches when asked how difficult it would be to fit the likes of Fletcher and Wellman into the side. “We will drop players because if you don’t play well you will get dropped – I’m not mentioning names. The other thing is that Dustin Fletcher and Sean Wellman are very good players so they must come back. I would also like to play another young player or two and keep moving them in and out of the side. I’m also happy to rest players if it means they will be spot on for the next match and we have some big games coming up. I’m not about playing injured players,” Sheedy said.

The Bombers trained strongly at Windy Hill this afternoon for about 90 minutes. Dean Solomon spent the night in the swimming pool while Matthew Lloyd and Damian Cupido finished off the session with 20-minutes goal kicking practice. Sean Wellman and Dustin Fletcher both moved very well.