MICHAEL Hurley is likely to miss Essendon's next two matches with a minor hamstring strain.

Bomber coach James Hird ruled the key forward out of contention for the Anzac Day clash with Collingwood on Wednesday and said the club was also unlikely to risk Hurley in their round six match against the Brisbane Lions.

"He will definitely miss Anzac Day," he told SEN radio on Monday morning.

"And with a player like Michael and (his) importance to our team we will probably keep him out of our next game as well."

Hird confirmed he expected to make four or five changes to his undefeated side for Anzac Day, just to inject some freshness into the line-up given just a three-day break between blockbuster clashes with Carlton and Collingwood.

He would get a better gauge of the condition of his players at training on Monday and Tuesday.

"Until (then), it's a bit difficult to tell which guys are still sore and which guys aren't," he said.

Hird said the short turnaround between games wasn't long enough to gain an accurate gauge on player "wellness" through blood testing, but suggested less scientific methods were also powerful.

"Guys like (people and development manager) Danny Corcoran and (assistant coach) Mark Thompson are very good at just picking the way guys are running, and they’re very rarely wrong. That's a big thing for us as well," he said.

Hird added he wasn't expecting Sam Lonergan to face a penalty from the Match Review Panel for his heavy tackle on Carlton stopper Andrew Carrazzo.

"Sam was aggressive in his performance but not overly aggressive," he said. "It's very disappointing and unfortunate for Andrew that he broke his collarbone, and we don’t like to see that, but it wasn't Sam's intention in any way for that to happen."

Michael Hurley is a $333,900 forward in Toyota AFL Dream Team. Register your team here