Essendon barometer Mark McVeigh is a near certainty to pull on the Bombers guernsey this weekend against North Melbourne after overcoming an ankle injury sustained in the pre-season.
Speaking to the media today, Matthew Knights revealed that McVeigh will definitely come into the equation when the selection committee meets on Thursday.
“McVeigh is very keen to get back out there. He has definitely put his hand up to play,” Knights said.
“We rate him pretty highly from a leadership perspective and also in the way he goes about his football. He is pretty inspirational for us.
“I’m going to look pretty strongly at him this week at training but would like to see him out there on Sunday.”
Promising young midfielder Sam Lonergan is another player who has been declared fit and will generate plenty of discussion at the selection meeting.
The 21-year-old, has missed Essendon’s last two games after sustaining a minor fracture to his hand at training.
“Sam Lonergan is physically right to play,” Knights said.
“Sam has trained fully this week and has completed all sessions. He trained last week but had a little bit of soreness left in his hand.
“We still have a main session to go but I think he is a good chance to be physically right to go but we will need to sit down at match committee and go through last week’s team before making a decision.”
In other injury news, Kyle Reimers is progressing well from quad tendonitis and Knights said the livewire is eagerly pushing for a senior berth.
“Kyle came into my office, probably twice this week declaring himself fit,” Knights said.
“He is still a couple of weeks away but he is very spirited. He loves a contest and loves playing football but it’s a conditioning element now.
“His injury is healing quite well and now he has to get some conditioning through his running, and kicking so hopefully in two or three weeks he’ll be available for selection.
“It’s Kyle’s career on the line here so we need to be patient with his injury because we really rate him as a player.”
