OUT-OF-CONTRACT forward Shaun McKernan had appeared to suffer a serious hamstring injury at the worst possible time, but coach John Worsfold has said McKernan should still be in the red and black in 2019.

The 27-year-old badly injured his left hamstring when leaping for a mark in the second term of the Bombers' 29-point win over Fremantle on Saturday evening.

Worsfold was asked if McKernan – who has played 28 games for the Bombers since crossing from Adelaide in 2015 – would be at the club next year.

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"I'm pretty confident [he will be]," Worsfold said.

He also said McKernan will look to have scans on Sunday.

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"It's a bad hamstring, it certainly looks like it. Really disappointing for Shaun, he's been playing really good footy for us, and now his job is to do what he needs to do to recover as quickly as possible.

"[Scans will be needed] just to find out which part of the hamstring has been affected. That obviously influences the time out of the game."

While everything needs to go right for Essendon to make finals, the make-up of its forward line looms as a crucial component of its march to September.

Cale Hooker was moved in the second half to provide a tall option in Essendon's forward line, but accuracy eluded him, kicking three behinds.

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Small forward Orazio Fantasia kicked five goals in his return from an adductor strain, while Mitch Brown, who has spent most of his career in defence, kicked two vital goals from outside 50.

Spearhead Joe Daniher is still out indefinitely with an osteitis pubis injury, but the mercurial Jake Stringer, the team's leading goal-kicker, could make a surprise return for next week's cut-throat match against Sydney at Etihad Stadium.

Stringer has missed the past two matches with a calf injury and was expected to be another one to two weeks away.

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"We've got Michael Hartley as a big key defender (as a replacement for McKernan), we've got (Jordan) Ridley, we've got (Aaron) Francis and we've also got James Stewart playing pretty solid footy up forward for us, as well as Jake Stringer possibly available next week," Worsfold said.

"We've got a lot to look at. Right at this moment, I'd say it's not necessarily one straight swap for McKernan, we've got to weigh up the structure we want to go with.

"They follow a program when they're injured, and they might end up ahead of that program and they still have to tick boxes to be available to play, so Jake's still got to do that. But if you ask him, he should have played today."