HAWTHORN expects to regain captain Luke Hodge, Bradley Hill and Ben Stratton for next week's qualifying final, but doubt remains over the fitness of defenders Brian Lake and Matt Suckling.
The Hawks easily accounted for Collingwood on Friday night at the MCG, overcoming a slow start to win by 65 points. The win secured Hawthorn a top-two finish, with all attention now turning to the first week of the finals.
Hawthorn received a scare when key defender Lake hobbled from the field in the third term with a leg injury, but Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson said the Norm Smith medallist had only received a "corkie" to his right thigh.
Hodge (knee soreness), Stratton (calf) and Hill (a late withdrawal with a corked quad) all missed the win over Collingwood, but the premiership trio is expected to train during the week and be passed fit to play.
Clarkson was less optimistic about Suckling's chances of overcoming his knee injury.
"With Suckling, we're not certain that he'll be available or not. We're hopeful that he will be. And the other guys should be OK. But we just need to get them assessed," he said.
"They were all a little bit sore and unable to play this week, we've taken the philosophy right through the year that we won't play injured players and they weren't quite right to play this game.
"Hopefully they'll be able to get into training early in the week and see how they go for selection next week."
Lake was subbed out of the game for first-year midfielder Billy Hartung at three-quarter time.
"[The injury] closed him down a bit so we got him off the ground. We were going to make a sub at that point in time anyway, it just so happened that he got sore at that point," Clarkson said.
Hartung was one of four players to come into the side that beat Geelong in round 22, alongside Taylor Duryea, Angus Litherland and Ryan Schoenmakers.
Clarkson said the depth was a healthy problem to have as the team strives for back-to-back premierships.
"He did well, Billy, when he got himself onto the oval so that was pleasing," he said.
"It's a good position to be in. It's not great for the players necessarily, because it's really hard to fit 26, 28 or 30 players into 22 spots.
"But we'll work out over the course of the week, and who our opponent is for next week's game, and we'll pick a side that we think that we think can give us the best chance to advance through the finals."
