Both Essendon and Geelong have injuries heading into Saturday night’s match at Etihad Stadium, with Knights confirming the Bombers would be without ruckman David Hille and small forward Angus Monfries.
The coach hopes the pair will return following his club’s mid-season bye.
Brent Stanton, a late withdrawal at the weekend with an ankle injury, is on track to return against the Cats while Knights will consider several others as his team prepares to bring down the reigning premiers.
“We’re thinking he’s a likely starter at this stage,” Knights said of Stanton.
“Both teams have got quality out of their team at the moment, so that I suppose evens itself out a little bit to a degree.
“It’s a great contest for us Saturday night ... to be playing the top side twice in 12 weeks is a great challenge for our group.”
Essendon will regain Dustin Fletcher from injury meaning if Stanton also returns, he has filled his quota, given the injuries to Hille and Monfries.
But he hinted there was likely to be more changes, with Mark Williams among a raft of players being considered.
“We’re going to have a look at Mark this week, along with four or five other guys - Ricky Dyson, Kyle Reimers, Bachar Houli, Henry Slattery all played in the VFL and got some match fitness,” Knights said.
“We’ll be looking at five or six players who potentially could come in. It’s not such a bad thing to have some fresh players coming in that are ready to go.”
As for Geelong, Knights admitted picking a line-up to face the Cats would be challenging, with Mark Thompson facing his own injury worries.
Key forwards Cam Mooney (ankle) and James Podsiadly (groin) are in doubt, with their concerns coming on top of a foot injury to Tom Hawkins.
Thompson said on Tuesday morning he needed to play “one guy over six foot” in his forward line.
Knights said while he expected Mooney and Podsiadly to play, their potential absence may cause the Bombers to re-think their backline.
“It’s pretty intriguing, depending whether Mooney’s in or Podsiadly,” he said.
“But what we do know is one or two of them will always pop up and get you.
“Shannon Byrnes, [Travis] Varcoe, [Paul] Chapman, Stevie Johnson, you know I’ve got the highest respect for them all because their work-rate is so high.
“So they’ve got a lot of good options, and no matter who they put out there they’re going to be very competitive.”
