Essendon coach John Worsfold fronted the media at The Hangar on Wednesday ahead of the Bombers’ clash with the Western Bulldogs on Saturday.

Here are the key quotes…

Adam Saad’s hamstring injury

“He won’t get up this week, it’s too risky. It’s maybe only one week, possibly two, but I can’t predict what that will be until we see how he’s going.

“He’s been in very good form, he’s had a wonderful year for us but we’ve had this happen various times throughout the year, so it’s an opportunity for other players.”

Dyson Heppell’s foot injury and leadership

“(The situation is) the same as last week. Nothing’s really changing with Dyson other than with every game he misses, obviously his foot feels better. We’ll make an assessment on whether he’s up for playing this week.

“If it gets to that point where we think it’s not going to recover at all and he’s going to miss too many weeks before he’s available to go again, then we’ll have to make a decision. But at the moment, we’re just working towards seeing if he’s available for this week.

Dyson Heppell is in the mix to lead the side against the Dogs. (Image: AFL Photos)

“He wants to play, but he’s still been awesome around the footy club - that’s often something that doesn’t get talked about.

“Most of the times I hear commentators talking about leadership they just talk about a player playing well on the field, hitting the ball hard or kicking the ball hard – that’s two hours a week. Dyson’s around this group for another 15 or 20 hours a week and shows his outstanding leadership in that time.”

Matt Guelfi’s knee injury

“He’s had surgery on his knee, so he won’t be back this season, but he’ll be back strong and ready to go for the pre-season.”

Darcy Parish and Aaron Francis’ fitness tests

“They’ve both got to go through protocols. Francis has got bad whiplash and had fairly severe symptoms of that early in the week, so we’ll see how he is today.

“Darcy was more concussion, so we’ll see how he is but certainly won’t take any risks if there’s any doubt at all.”

Last week’s loss to Port Adelaide

“In the first half if was a pretty intense game, (the Power) had taken their opportunities more than us but we had the same scoring shots at goal. At half-time I thought the game was poised; they kicked that goal just before the siren to make it 16 points.

“In the second half, we were well off and we’ve tried to assess why from the way we played the game and what went wrong for us there, but there are obviously a lot of other factors that are hard to measure.

“It’s fair to say we didn’t execute the way we wanted to play as well as we would have liked in the second half – that was down on our normal level and that’s our focus to get it back up.”

John Worsfold departs the ground following the loss to the Power. (Image: AFL Photos)

The importance of this week’s game

For us, every game is a joy to be a part of, every game is exciting and every game is important for our fans.

The club’s injury list

“We get Irving Mosquito back this week off it, but potentially we add a couple to it. But if Hepp’s back and (Shaun) McKernan’s back – there’s a bit of a few in, few out this week. We’ve got a few season-ending injuries now, which is never ideal, but we play a pretty brutal game.

“It’s not frustrating for me. I feel for the players, because they want to play footy; they’re young men, they’re doing what they love doing. But we still run out with 22 players and I’m loving seeing some growth and we’re learning new things about them and they’ve been awesome.

“Michael Hartley and Benny McNiece, who have come in over the last couple of weeks, have just been hanging in there all year playing their role in helping us being a strong group, because when we need them we need them in good form and they’ve been able to do the job for us.

“We would obviously love to have no injuries, but that’s never ever going to be the case. Don’t get frustrated by it, just be professional and work through it.”

You can see Worsfold’s entire press conference in the video above.