LOYALTY will be the key reason Michael Hurley will stay at Essendon, but the star Don is "still hurting" from the ramifications of the 2012 supplements saga and subsequent WADA ban, says former teammate Paul Chapman.

Speaking on RSN on Tuesday morning, Chapman said he had recently caught up with Hurley for lunch, but was still far from certain about the defender's playing future. 

Match preview: Essendon v Greater Western Sydney

"I just asked him a little bit about his future and what he’s thinking," Chapman said. 

"He’s a very loyal person, he loves the Essendon football club and his teammates."

Chapman, who played 29 games for the Bombers over two seasons after a decorated career at Geelong, said he felt Hurley wasn’t completely over the events of the past few years. 

"There was just something in the way we spoke that just made me think that maybe he’s still hurting a little bit from everything that’s happened," he said. 

Hurley, runner-up in Essendon’s best and fairest last year, is contracted for next season, but there has been speculation that Richmond has attempted to lure the defender to Punt Road, something which the Tigers have denied.

Chapman said he thought he would come away from the lunch definitively knowing Hurley’s future intentions, but that wasn’t the case. 

"I think he’ll stay because he’s loyal, but it wasn’t definitive," he said.

"I thought I’d be able to gauge exactly what was going on, but it was hard to gauge exactly how he was feeling.

"Whether or not he’s totally over it – it didn’t really look like that to me."