HAWTHORN'S formidable outfit could be boosted by the return of key defender James Frawley and speedster Bradley Hill for Friday night's clash with Carlton at Etihad Stadium.
And the back-to-back premiers will also mull over whether to include Will Langford (knee) and Taylor Duryea (shoulder).
Hill (calf soreness) should force his way back into the team which belted the Sydney Swans by 89 points to secure its seventh-straight win last Saturday night.
But Frawley might return through the VFL after three weeks on the sidelines with a dislocated shoulder.
Match preview: Blues v Hawks
"I think there's a level of optimism that James will be available to play. We're not sure yet whether it will be in the AFL team or in Box Hill," football manager Chris Fagan told the club's website.
"He's missed a lot of football this year, so that's a decision that match committee need to make later in the week.
"(Hill) got some calf soreness on our last training session of the week last week and we just thought we'd be fairly cautious with him. He's an important player to us, so we made the decision to leave him out.
"But he's made a good recovery from that and … we expect him to be available for selection Friday night."
Fagan said Duryea's sore shoulder, suffered in the win over Fremantle two games ago, would be tested at training on Thursday.
Emerging midfielder Will Langford also didn't play last weekend due to knee soreness.
"We just thought we'd take the opportunity to give him a bit of a rest and be able to get that to settle down," Fagan said.
"He did some good training on the weekend and again today, so the expectation is that he'll be available for football this weekend."
Meanwhile, scans have confirmed luckless 22-year-old Alex Woodward needs a third right knee reconstruction.
Woodward, who was adjudged the VFL's best and fairest player last season, had been in stellar form again this year before he went down clutching his knee after a marking contest in Box Hill's win over Coburg on Sunday.
"That was a really sad thing to see happen. He's worked so hard over the last two or three years to come back from his previous knee reconstructions," Fagan said.
"It was difficult to know what to say to him when it happened.
"If he's done it for the first time you can tend to be optimistic, but when you've done it for the third time … when you know the guy who's done the injury knows what he's got to go through over the next 12 months and it's hard to really have much to say.
"But his teammates have rallied around him. I know he's caught up with Max Bailey, who is a great friend of his, and Max has been through the same situation himself. To have that happen doesn't seem fair."
Woodward will see a surgeon on Wednesday to discuss his next reconstruction.
