Tough nut Jack Viney is "sorer than usual" but could play against Brisbane on Sunday, Melbourne AFL co-captain Nathan Jones says.
Viney, who had foot surgery last month to fix a plantar fascia injury, arrived at the club on crutches on Monday.
The 23-year-old was relatively quiet during the Dees' 24-point win over St Kilda on Sunday, which propelled them back into the top eight.
With two rounds left, Melbourne can give their finals chances a huge boost with victory over the bottom-placed Lions at the MCG.
Jones described Viney's crutches as precautionary but conceded that he would need to manage his workload carefully.
"He has probably pulled up a little bit sorer than usual but in saying that, he is a pretty tough customer and we expect him to get out there hopefully on the weekend," Jones said on Wednesday.
"The chance to get off it and recover and de-load it is important. It's something that he's going to no doubt have to manage, just due to him coming back so quickly from the surgery.
"With the injury itself, trying to give it as much time to heal in between smashing it on the weekend is important for him."
Spearhead Jesse Hogan (shoulder) remains up to three weeks away but the Dees otherwise have a healthy list to choose from.
Enigmatic forward Jack Watts and athletic defender Sam Frost were among four Demons demoted to the VFL last week.
But the Dees will be tempted to stick with young tall Sam Weideman and veteran Cam Pedersen, who was among their best against St Kilda with 26 disposals and two goals.
"I wouldn't identify it as just Jack. We dropped four players from the week before," Jones said.
"Obviously Jack was one of those players that probably wasn't in the form that even he'd expect so he had some things to work on, and so did the other three players that missed as well.
"I guess the expectation placed on someone like Cam Pedersen coming in ... we saw the performance he put out there on the weekend and I think that (depth) leaves us in a terrific position as a club."
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