Joe Daniher is back.

Essendon has confirmed that its star key forward will make his long-awaited return to action in Thursday night's clash with Hawthorn, marking his first appearance in more than 15 months.

Daniher has endured persistent groin issues, while his recovery was further hampered by a calf strain earlier this year, limiting the club's attacking spearhead to just 11 matches over the last three seasons.

"The great news is that we are expecting him to play," Essendon coach John Worsfold said.

"We've obviously got a light session this morning, but we're really excited that Joe has done the work to be available and ready to step back up to play some footy. It's great for Joe and great for us and great for footy.

"It's been a really close partnership over a long period of time, getting to this point where Joe is ready to go.

"Obviously we had a little setback with his calf injury a month ago, or we'd have been at this point a little bit earlier. But we got through that and we've done the work. Joe is very comfortable and excited about getting back out there."

Despite not playing in last week's scratch match, the Bombers are confident that Daniher has done enough preparation to ensure he is fully fit for Thursday night's encounter at the Adelaide Oval.

"Obviously everything is fairly different in terms of getting players back playing in this current environment," Worsfold said.

"We certainly weighed all of that up. With the match practice that we had last week, it didn't fit into the right schedule to have Joe available to play (a scratch match) this week."