Amber Clarke and Bonnie Toogood collide during the match between Essendon and Fremantle at Windy Hill in round one, 2024. Picture: AFL Photos

ESSENDON co-captain Bonnie Toogood remains hopeful she can return before the end of the season as she continues to rehab a torn medical cruciate ligament in her knee.

Toogood suffered the injury in week one in a front-on collision with teammate Amber Clarke as both attempted to mark the footy from different directions.

Speaking on AFL.com.au's The W Show, Toogood said physios had initially refused to rule out a torn ACL.

"I think you can see by that (vision) – me hugging Ange Stannett (while crying) – that I was very emotional. I think purely, I didn't know what it was going to be. From the testing on the day, and obviously physios can't say 'It's not going to be this', it's always in the back of your mind, the dreaded ACL injury," Toogood said.

"[It had] all the mechanisms, if you see from the footage and the still frame that Michael Willson took, the way I was twisting my body, the impact at which Amber came in and hit my knee.

"I'm definitely counting my lucky stars and also the eight years of conditioning my body has gone through, the programs I've done, and I couldn't emphasise more how important Prep to Play is and all of those knee exercises we do, held me in good stead and my ACL was super strong, and the MCL took the brunt of the force."

25:23

The W Show: AFLW's 'line in the sand' moment, Bonnie's bold bid

Bonnie Toogood joins The W Show to dissect the fallout of Chloe Molloy's injury announcement, plus how she's plodding a comeback from an MCL injury.

Former Western Bulldogs teammate and current North Melbourne defender Libby Birch recently returned from a torn MCL in just under six weeks.

The same (albeit speedy) timeline would see Toogood make her comeback in week seven, October 11, with four games remaining in the home-and-away season.

00:55

Huge collision brings concerns for big-name Bombers

Amber Clarke is stretchered off with concussion and Bonnie Toogood limps down to the rooms after this heavy clash

"Every athlete has their great debating and negotiation skills when it comes to injury. I have already mentioned that case study of Libby Birch, I've already gone to our head physio and said Libby got back (to full training) in four," Toogood said.

"I'm guided by them, and I'm also guided by the pain that's in my knee. At the moment, the exercises I'm doing, I've got no pain. I feel like I'm flying and going well. I'm going to remain positive, but there are going to be key indicators throughout the rehab that are going to tell me how I'm really tracking."