DECIMATED Essendon hopes its injury crisis can deliver a silver lining by setting it up to reverse its recent trend of falling away late in seasons.

The Bombers (6-7) will field an 11th debutant of the AFL season against Fremantle at Optus Stadium on Thursday, with teenage ruck Vigo Visentini called up and veteran Todd Goldstein rested.

Essendon then have the bye and will soon see some light at the end of the tunnel, after a severely understrength team was thrashed by Geelong by 95 points on Saturday.

Kyle Langford, Zach Reid, Jordan Ridley and Mason Redman are all due to return within the month.

In 2024, the Bombers lost six of their final seven games, while they lost five of their last seven in 2023.

They will hope the baptism of fire faced by players unearthed during their injury crisis can help buck that trend.

"I would like to think so," coach Brad Scott said. 

"There's no doubt we'd like some support around them. But there are some players that I feel have come into our side that wouldn't have had an opportunity if we didn't have some availability issues.

"But from my vantage point at the moment, they're players that have come in and won't go back out again. So that, by definition, will strengthen our team over time."

Scott noted the likes of second-year defender Archie Roberts and first-year players Zak Johnson and Angus Clarke had stepped up to the plate.

"It is a bit of a baptism of fire," he said.

"But what a way to start your career – to come in and play not just roles, but play really influential, important roles."

Scott was wary of the idea things would just click into place once personnel returned.

"At the moment we've also got to be careful that, because we hopefully will get some personnel, not all of our personnel, back in the back half of the year, that that's the panacea," he said.

"We've got a lot to work on in our game, and we've got to use this period at the moment to really improve."

With Sam Draper (Achilles) and Nick Bryan (ACL) out for the season Visentini's debut will allow 36-year-old Goldstein to have a two-week break.

The 19-year-old will get support from second-gamer Lachlan Blakiston and forward Peter Wright against Sean Darcy and Luke Jackson.

"It's a challenge, no doubt, Fremantle in Perth for obvious reasons, but he's performed really well in the VFL, and this is not something that we're springing on him," Scott said.

"We've been planning this for a while, so we'll have him as ready as he possibly can be."

There remains no timeline on big man Harry Jones' return.

Scott said his recovery from a dislocated ankle had "stagnated" and he was yet to start running.

Ben McKay (foot) isn't running either while Nik Cox has faced the AFL's concussion panel, with the Bombers awaiting a written report.