Watch FIFA World Cup 2026™

LIVE, FREE and EXCLUSIVE

Bombers AFL trio should be fit: Worsfold

All eyes will be on Essendon AFL trio Michael Hurley, Cale Hooker and Orazio Fantasia at their Wednesday training session.

Essendon Bombers player Michael Hurley
Michael Hurley is one of three Essendon players under an injury cloud this week. (AAP)

Essendon could give Cale Hooker an extra day or so to prove his fitness as three big AFL selection calls loom for the Bombers.

All eyes will be on Hooker, All-Australian defender Michael Hurley and small forward Orazio Fantasia at Wednesday's main training session, ahead of Saturday's elimination final against Sydney at the SCG.

Fantasia suffered a hamstring injury in the round 20 win over Carlton, while Hurley has missed the past two games with a calf muscle injury.

Hooker sat out round 23 with what is being described as leg bone bruising.

Coach John Worsfold said Wednesday was their big test.

News that makes sense

Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

For now, he is confident they will prove they are ready to play.

"Hooker's probably a little bit different because his injury is a bit different," he said.

"So exactly what he'll do tomorrow, I will be guided by the high performance staff.

"He may be later in the week; the other two, because they're more the soft tissue injuries, they need to tick off, whereas Hooker is more a stress thing."

Worsfold would not go into what specifically is wrong with Hooker.

"I'm not the one who needs to know exactly what he has, that's the docs," he said.

"So they've obviously been monitoring him.

"The plan was that he was off his legs last week and he would start to build up this week."

Worsfold said if the game was played last weekend, only Hurley would have been a chance for selection.

Essendon will start at long odds against Sydney, the AFL's most in-form team.

The Bombers pushed the Swans in round 14 at the SCG, losing by a point, but Sydney look much stronger and have enjoyed a better run into the finals.

The Swans also have a much better finals record in the past few seasons but Worsfold wants his team to relish the challenge.

"It's not intimidating," he said.

"The key thing is, we haven't worked our backsides off to qualify to play finals thinking we're going in and hoping for an easy game.

"We want to play finals because we want to play in the big stuff against the best teams in the comp, when there's more at stake."

Worsfold said they were yet to decide how to match up on Sydney star Lance Franklin, who has a strong record against the Bombers.


3 min read

Published

Source: AAP



Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News straight to your inbox

Sign up now for daily news from Australia and around the world. You can also subscribe to Insight's weekly newsletter for in-depth features and first-person stories.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Follow SBS News

Download our apps

Listen to our podcasts

Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service

Stream now

Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world