HAWTHORN is confident James Sicily is ready to face Richmond in the club's qualifying final on Thursday night, despite the star defender missing seven weeks with a wrist injury.
Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson stopped short of guaranteeing Sicily will be back for the Thursday night clash, but the marking backman trained with the group at its Waverley headquarters on Wednesday morning.
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Clarkson said the 23-year-old had been able to maintain his fitness in recent weeks despite not playing since round 17.
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"He's been able to do a hell of a lot of running. He'll need to do some testing around spoiling and marking and that sort of stuff because it's been a hand injury," the four-time premiership coach said ahead of his latest September campaign.
"We'll get that worked out but I'm reasonably sure [he'll be available]."
The Hawks could also welcome back Dan Howe after his five-game suspension, but Clarkson cast some doubt over picking the tagging midfielder given the five-day gap between his VFL return last Saturday and the Hawks' meeting with the Tigers.
Clarkson said Sicily was unlikely to need to play with a glove or guard to protect the injury after being cleared to play last week.
"No, I don't think so. All he needs to do is make sure that wrist is fully recovered by the surgeon. He got the all clear from the specialist in that regard 10 days ago and now it's all about his touch and his ball work," Clarkson said.
"We'll get that tested and probably do that upstairs [indoors at the club] later on this morning and then make a call on whether he plays or not."
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Clarkson pointed to Richmond's "strength across all lines" as the toughest aspect of beating the reigning premiers but will enter with some confidence after four tight wins to finish the season to secure a top-four spot (against Essendon, Geelong, St Kilda and Sydney).
"They'd be saying the same thing, that they need to play near their best to win this game of footy and we certainly need to play near our best to win this game of footy," Clarkson said.
"They've been the benchmark of the competition and we're going to give ourselves every chance. We've been in OK form over the last little while, but nor have we really tested ourselves against the top echelon of the competition and we get that chance tomorrow night.
"Either way, whichever the result is, we're going to get a really good feel for where we're at as a footy club."
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Veteran defender Grant Birchall suffered a setback in his bid to return from injury for the finals with an adductor strain.
Birchall has played just five games since the start of 2017 – and none this year – but Clarkson said he could still be in contention if the Hawks progress to the end of the finals.
"We needed to take this risk to give himself a chance and he's had a slight strain which isn't crucial, it's just set him back a week to 10 days," Clarkson said.
"It all depends on how we progress. If we get through to a preliminary final or Grand Final situation then he might give himself a chance to play."
