Essendon forward Scott Gumbleton is being rest from this weekend’s team against Brisbane to avoid any injury after playing eight consecutive matches this season.

Coach James Hird said on Friday morning Gumbleton was at a ‘risky stage’ in terms of suffering an injury.

“Instead of getting him injured and resting him we will rest him before that injury comes,” Hird said.

“All his indicators and markers form the high performance team are that he is at a risky stage with an injury.”

Gumbleton will this week make way for Patrick Ryder who is returning for his first game since Round 3 against Fremantle.

Essendon coach James Hird said he was excited about the Bombers forward line options as pressure continues to mount on selection each week.

“We want to make sure the players are playing well week in and week out, they get rewarded for their performances and they play along the team lines and way we want to play,” he said.

“Our forward line has been exceptional this year in terms of defending and also scoring so it is a pretty hard spot to get our place in but it puts pressure on everyone to play well.”

“The positive we have is we have some very good talls and they can’t all play in the same team so we will continue to put pressure on them to play well and will bring in guys in good form.”

The Bombers will be looking to get off to a strong start this week against Brisbane, an opponent Hird is not taking lightly.

“They had their chances against West Coast, they worked very hard, they can score against you if you don’t defend well against them and they have a very good quality group around the ball.”

“We need to get some things right around the ball and stop them with their ball movement to be to on form tomorrow.”

“We want to get off to a good start and play the sort of football we want to play from the start of the game.”

Despite a 6-1 start to the season Hird believes his side still have plenty of improvement left in them.

“I think we realise we have a long way to go in the way we want to play our football.”

“We played good football for patches last Friday night but when you lose a game you have opportunities in it is always disappointing.”