Bombers sweat on trio’s fitness

ESSENDON could give Cale Hooker an extra day or so to prove his fitness as three big AFL selection calls loom for the Bombers.

All eyes will be on Hooker, All-Australian defender Michael Hurley and small forward Orazio Fantasia at today’s main training session, ahead of Saturday’s elimination final against Sydney at the SCG.

Fantasia suffered a hamstring injury in the Round 20 win over Carlton, while Hurley has missed the past two games with a calf muscle injury. Hooker sat out Round 23 with what is being described as leg bone bruising. Coach John Worsfold said today was their big test. “Hooker’s probably a little bit different because his injury is a bit different,” he said.

“So exactly what he’ll do (today), I will be guided by the high performance staff.

“He may be later in the week; the other two, because they’re more the soft tissue injuries, they need to tick off, whereas Hooker is more a stress thing.”

Worsfold would not go into what specifically is wrong with Hooker. “I’m not the one who needs to know exactly what he has, that’s the docs,” he said.