DAVID Zaharakis is a chance to return for the Bombers this week, having not played since shoulder surgery in May.

The important midfielder was enjoying a consistent season before a crunching tackle against the Tigers in round 11 saw him have to go under the knife.

The Bomber has returned to training and may be considered for Saturday's clash with Fremantle.

"Dave's now been surgically and medically cleared in terms of his actual pathology and injury," the club's high performance manager Justin Crow told Essendon's website.

"Now the real test is that he can get into training, we're hoping he does a full session [on Wednesday].

"We'll be watching him closely in terms of both his fitness and his ability to play the game from a physical point of view, and if he can prove himself in both of those aspects he'll be made available."

Essendon remains a chance to make the finals after winning six of its past eight games, and could be boosted by the recall of Orazio Fantasia after the small forward missed the past two weeks with an adductor injury.

He was a late withdrawal on both occasions, but Crow said the Bombers were cautious with Fantasia before last week's win over Gold Coast.

"We ended up getting a good training session into him on the Saturday, but right at death's door we made the decision not to play him, because we felt there was still too much risk in terms of how much he'd recovered from his original injury," he said.

"Orazio will do all of training tomorrow, we're expecting him to go well in that session and then be available."

Adam Saad is in some doubt after finishing the game against the Suns on the bench with hamstring cramp. Saad has been in brilliant form as a dashing defender.

"We'll be monitoring him closely to make sure he's recovered from that," Crow said.