Essendon coach Matthew Knights flagged the possible return of Essendon's first round selection in last year's NAB AFL Draft after he was the Bendigo Bombers' best this weekend.
Hurley has played just the one match – the opening round against Port Adelaide – but missed the following five matches with a quadriceps injury. He has since played the past two matches at VFL level.
"When we went in round one to Port Adelaide and he played on Warren Tredrea and did a wonderful job, I thought he (would) obviously be in the side from then on," Knights said post-match after his side's 19-point loss to St Kilda.
"But breaking down with quaddies, and with [defenders] Tayte [Pears] and Cale [Hooker] are going really well … I think Michael will be in our team sooner rather than later. He's a young player of the highest quality, and he just needed some match fitness.
"I'm not sure whether it'll be next week … but he's also got the capacity to play up forward and he's played up forward at under-18 level, so we might have the flexibility of using him at either end."
Knights also tossed up Mark McVeigh (ankle), Kyle Reimers (quadriceps), Andrew Welsh (ankle), Jason Laycock (foot) and Brent Prismall (knee) as other players soon to return from injury.
“McVeigh trained pain free all week, and we looked liked having Kyle Reimers, Mark McVeigh and possibly Andrew Welsh and Jason Laycock all playing within one or two weeks," he said.
"Having those additions coming back into the line-up or coming back into the club to play is great, so we can get them back into the senior core.
"[Brent] Prismall had his second game in the VFL yesterday and he came through unscathed again, so hopefully we can get some artillery back in the second half of the year and they can contribute."
Knights said Prismall needs to be given time to find his feet with the Bendigo Bombers before returning to the highest level.
"It's just that speed and that ‘ping’ that he's getting back into his legs. I'm sure it'll come pretty soon, but he's probably going to need a little bit more time."
