Ben Haynes makes his long awaited return to football with the Bendigo Bombers this Sunday, having finally shaken a troublesome quadricep injury. Haynes, who played in both finals' for the Bombers last season, is yet to play a senior game this season. Damian Cupido, who will spend another week in the VFL side, has been named at full forward.

""Quads can be difficult injuries to get over and Ben has had a couple of recurrences of the injury since he first did it,"" Essendon fitness coach John Quinn said. ""Ben has had to be patient with it but he is now right to go and I know the match committee are pleased he is back. They were happy with what he did last season and once he has some match conditioning I'm sure they will be looking to push him up into the seniors.""

Quinn said that Cupido still needed to get some match conditioning under his belt. ""Hindsight is a wonderful thing but looking back we might have pushed him back before he was really ready,"" Quinn said. ""He is working hard on the track and he is doing some extra sessions with me as well so he will be raring to go very soon.""

The Bendigo Bombers side to take on Sandringham at Trevor Barker Beach Oval at 2.00pm on Sunday is:

Backs: Doering Hunt Nash
Half Backs: Bullen Campbell Winderlich
Centre: Dyson Stanton Bradley
Half Forwards: Wilson Richards Lovett
Forwards: Moorcroft Cupido Walsh
Rucks: Laycock Haynes Carter
Bench (from): Rosa Cosgriff Bowen Robbins Gilliland Hawkins Webster Vigus