James Hird could be back playing in two weeks - that was the good news to come out of a re-examination of his injured ankle this afternoon. It was initially thought Hird would miss three weeks but as the swelling has gone down, medical staff are getting a better idea of the damage that has been done. ""It is much better than we thought and there is some chance he will only miss two games. Obviously we won't take any risks with him but the damage around the ankle isn't as bad as we had feared,"" Essendon football manager Matthew Drain said.

Drain said the club wasn't overly concerned its captain would miss games so close to the finals. ""It is never ideal but he showed last year that the effect on his form was minimal,"" Drain said. ""He missed five of the last seven games in 2000 yet he had a fantastic finals series and went on to win the Norm Smith Medal. He has had a couple of niggles in the past couple of weeks so another positive will be the fact he can get those right,"" Drain said.