Essendon star Cale Hooker should return from a dislocated finger and replace Shaun McKernan for Sunday's home AFL match against Brisbane.
Several other players are pushing for senior recalls, but coach John Worsfold said Hooker heads the list as the Bombers learn their lessons from Friday night's last-gasp loss to Sydney.
Hooker suffered the injury last week in training.
"He should be right - the only minor risk is if he splits the stitches open in training," Worsfold said.
"Hooker's the one that, if he's fit, will come in - most likely at McKernan's expense, even though we were pleased with what McKernan offered the team."
Worsfold said Darcy Parish, David Myers, Matthew Leuenberger and Mark Baguley were also making cases for selection.
The Bombers led Sydney by 19 points with less than five minutes to play and Worsfold said they had learned plenty from the disaster.
He added it was too difficult to say what impact the loss would have on the team.
"Awareness of time, awareness of what our mindset is in those situations - whether it's five minutes to go, one minute to go, there are subtle changes," he said.
"For us, the impact we're looking for is we're smarter and better in those situations ... but that we also know why we got into that position, in terms of being in front."
Worsfold is confident that the next time the Bombers are in a similar position, they will handle the scenario better.
"They didn't do too much wrong - there were a lot of little things (where) we gave Sydney tiny windows, that they were good enough to grab," he said.
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