Snelling to miss, Shiel shooting to be available

Forward Will Snelling has been ruled out of Essendon’s clash with Port Adelaide after suffering a low-end hamstring strain.

Snelling presented with ‘awareness’ in his hamstring post round 21, with scans revealing the 25-year-old had suffered a strain.

Head of high performance Sean Murphy said there’s still a possibility for Snelling to return to the Dons lineup for round 23.

“Snelling’s unfortunately got a low-grade hamstring strain,” Murphy told Essendon FC’s Liberty Financial Performance Update.

“He got through the game no issues and then presented the day after with a bit of awareness, and unfortunately on scanning (the hamstring) it showed the low-grade strain.

“He’ll miss this week and we’ll test it the following week.”

midfielder Jye Caldwell may make a return after missing round 21 with a calf strain.

Murphy said the 21-year-old is making positive strides, but an assessment will come later in the week in terms of his availability.

“’Calders’ is going well,” he said.

“He’s still got a bit to get through this week, but things are looking pretty positive for Jye and the plan will be to train across this week and we’ll assess his availability after the main session this week.”

Dylan Shiel is a strong chance to return to Essendon’s side after completing a thorough weekend session.

Murphy said Shiel will have to get through Friday’s main session unabated to then be available for selection.

“Shiel’s probably a step ahead of Jye,” Murphy said.

“He completed a really solid session over the weekend, ticked off a lot of things we wanted to see and he’s going to train fully across the week, get through main training and he’ll be up for availability (for selection).”

Injury list – Round 22