HAWTHORN will give its injured stars every possible minute to prove their fitness ahead of Saturday night's semi-final against Carlton.

Aine McDonagh (bone bruising in her knee), Kaitlyn Ashmore (calf), Jasmine Fleming (groin) and skipper Emily Bates (SC joint/shoulder) are all tests for the sudden-death match.

With six players already ruled out through injury, and four tests, the Hawks have two train-on players on standby to either feature as emergencies or possibly make a shock AFLW debut in the finals series.

Former St Kilda rookie Paige Price, 23, has impressed in the ruck for VFLW side Box Hill this year, and was inactive in her sole season with the Saints in 2022, while intercept defender Matilda Van Berkel, also 23, was Box Hill's best and fairest this year, and was given a tap on the shoulder earlier this week to say she may be required.

Bates trained fully and strongly on Wednesday, while Ashmore dipped in and out of selected drills, but moved relatively well.

Fleming worked her way into her personalised training session, firstly restricted to straight line running and resistance band work before moving into lateral movement, and seemed upbeat with plenty of thumbs up to her trainer, although she did not feature with the main group at all.

It was difficult to get a full read on McDonagh, who appeared frustrated and struggled to move laterally at points when doing movement work away from the group. After a removal of some strapping tape, she rejoined match sim with her teammates, but was then involved in a deep and serious conversation with a physio and head coach Dan Webster at the conclusion of training, somewhat limping from the track.

Integral key back Jenna Richardson also left the track with half-an-hour remaining, with Hawthorn later confirming it was due to load management.

It's understood Hawthorn is likely name as many as possible tonight, with late changes still on the cards should the players fail to recover in time.

Recruit Najwa Allen said the Hawks will have to sharpen up their ball movement going into attack against Carlton, having struggled badly and kicking just three points last weekend facing North Melbourne.

"Definitely execution – obviously the team that executes is probably going to win, and our execution over the past two weeks just hasn't been at the level. And also just taking our chances when they're there," Allen said.

"There's a little bit to be said about our entries inside 50 – I think what we've seen from North is that their pressure is immense across the board, so the entries aren't as clean as we'd like them to be. But then when we do get our chances, it's just finishing, which I think in our high-pressure games, has become a bit troublesome for us. But we just have to step past that and take our chances.

"It was very tightly contested (against Carlton earlier this year). I really like Carlton, I love what they've done and how far they've come since last year since last year – if we weren't competing against them, I'd probably be supporting them, but we are, so I don't like them.

"I just assume everyone's going to play, that's the attitude I take into. I think a few of them are tests, hopefully we'll have them – we'll have final team selection this afternoon. I back the group to get it done regardless. You want to have your top talent playing, but we have the depth."