Young Bomber Josh Begley will make his long-awaited return to football this weekend after overcoming an ACL injury that derailed his 2018 season.

Begley suffered the significant injury on ANZAC Day last year and has worked tirelessly to get back on the park, which he will finally do in the VFL side’s opening home and away clash with Frankston on Sunday.

“We’re all excited to see Josh back, he’s put in a long, hard rehabilitation,” Essendon physical performance manager Justin Crow said on the SKINS Injury Update on Tuesday.

“He’s certainly done a lot of training recently and we’re expecting him to go and put his best foot forward in some limited game time against Frankston this weekend.”

Versatile defender Matt Dea is also likely to return on Sunday having recovered from a knee injury.

“Matt trained well today, he’s got another session with the VFL (side) this Thursday.

“If he gets through that well again then he’ll be available to play in the VFL game.”

Crow said promising utility Mason Redman will be made available for both senior and VFL selection this week, while experienced Bomber Marty Gleeson is nearing full fitness.

“Mason Redman’s on unlimited, unrestricted game time, whereas Marty is pushing up towards close to a full game.

“Both have made some really good progressions and obviously Mason will be available for both the AFL and VFL (games) based off being unrestricted.”

Mason Redman is back to full fitness and available for selection this week.

The club has decided to take a patient approach with important key-position Bomber Cale Hooker, who will be given another week of training to prime himself to return from the sidelines.

“Cale trained today and looked pretty sharp, to be fair, but we’ve decided following that session we’re going to give him another week of training before making him available to play.

“If he had played this Sunday in the VFL he’d be five and a half weeks after that calf strain and Cale’s going to take an extra week to keep building his football training ahead of playing.

Fellow tall Joe Daniher continues to improve on the track as he recovers from his own calf strain and Crow said the star forward is showing no signs of soreness from the osteitis pubis that kept him off the field for the majority of 2018.

“Joe is doing well, he’s doing plenty of volume, (showing) some good speed and lots of football components in his rehabilitation.

“His groins have been good through this whole calf rehab, which is very promising. Joe’s looking at another couple of weeks before being available.”

Joe Daniher is progressing well as he looks to return in the next fortnight.

Two Bombers who won’t be lining up this week are Jayden Laverde and Brandon Zerk-Thatcher, who suffered similar ankle injuries in the VFL team’s practice match victory over Sandringham last Saturday.

Crow said it is difficult to predict a timeframe for their return given the nature of the injury, but he was pleased to report there was no major damage.

“Jayden sprained his ankle in the second quarter of the VFL match. Fortunately, there’s no syndesmosis (joint) involvement.

“There is a significant amount of injury to the lateral ligaments of the ankle, which makes it a bit unpredictable in terms of his timeframe.

“Once Jayden can run pain-free we’ll start him cutting and rehabilitating him as he’s able.

“Brandon Zerk-Thatcher also had an ankle sprain. Again, fortunately, there was no syndesmosis involvement, but a reasonably significant sprain.

“He’ll be fighting hard to become available in the next couple of weeks.”

Young midfielders Trent Mynott (hip) and Jake Long (shoulder) are in the mix to take their place on the field and will be tested during the VFL side’s main training session on Thursday.

CLICK HERE TO RECEIVE THE WEEKLY BOMBER BULLETIN