Essendon coach Matthew Knights admits star forward Scott Lucas is in some doubt to line-up against Melbourne on Saturday at the MCG.
Lucas has been battling a variety of injuries in recent weeks and was held to just two kicks by Collingwood defender Harry O'Brien in the Bombers' thumping 48-point win over the Magpies last round.
"Scott had some difficulty in the second half last week with a back spasm and also his ankle and knee have been a little bit of an issue for him over the last five or six weeks," Knights said on Wednesday at Windy Hill prior to his team's training session.
"He hasn't done a lot of training over the last four weeks so he'd have to be really good today (at training) for me to put him out there (against the Demons)."
If the 30-year-old dual best-and-fairest winner was to sit out Saturday's clash, Knights conceded Essendon would be forced to enter the match 'smaller' in attack with budding key forward prospects Jay Neagle and Scott Gumbleton unavailable due to injury.
Lucas' potential absence would almost certainly pave the way for vastly improved Bombers Angus Monfries, Adam McPhee and Leroy Jetta to carry more of the load up forward.
"In regards to options, as in big forwards in the VFL, there's not a lot of options to be blunt," Knights said.
"So therefore it might be just we become a little bit smaller in our forward half, we did that for parts of the game against Collingwood last week in any case, we went smaller at times, so the boys are certainly not averse to doing that."
Yet Knights intimated that a week off wouldn't be the worst thing for Lucas who has kicked 17 goals in eight matches since being brought back into the side in Round 10 after he recovered from a posterior cruciate ligament injury sustained in Round 1.
"If he doesn't train well today and moves really freely I think that's probably the best option for him to give him this week (off)," Knights explained.
"That way his body will refresh, it'll give himself a week without that body on body competition and he may come up really well for the last part of the season."
Lucas' loss could become Andrew Lovett's gain with the speedster completing a two-match club-enforced suspension for unprofessionalism.
Although Knights far from guaranteed Lovett a spot in the 22 this week, the Bombers coach certainly suggested that he will be in the mix at the selection table following a solid showing in the VFL on the weekend.
"He is available but we'll finalise our 22 after today's training session because we've got a couple of boys that are obviously a little bit sore after two or three weeks of hard footy, so we'll make that decision post-session today," he said.
Youngsters Courtenay Dempsey, Darcy Daniher and Heath Hocking won't figure in selection calculations for the injury-ravaged Bombers this week after all returned from injury in the VFL on Sunday.