As late as Thursday afternoon, Hodge had expressed doubt over his fitness given the unpredictable nature of the Achilles injury that has hampered him for the past 10 weeks, but he replaced Brendan Whitecross when the extended squad for Sunday's match was trimmed to 22.
Whitecross drops back to the emergency list with Xavier Ellis and Brent Guerra for the twilight match.
Melbourne regains full-back James Frawley for the clash with the All Australian replacing Joel Macdonald in the line-up.
Macdonald is an emergency with Jake Spencer and Matthew Warnock.
Essendon has swung a selection surprise with ruckman Tom Bellchambers brought in to replace small forward Angus Monfries (general soreness) in a move that significantly changes the structure of the side that shocked the Bulldogs in round one.
If the Bombers line up as selected, they will have David Hille, Patrick Ryder and Bellchambers to face Sydney Swans Shane Mumford and Jesse White.
Alwyn Davey, Kyle Reimers and Brent Prismall are the emergencies.
The Swans have made two changes for the ANZ Stadium clash Brett Meredith and Craig Bird replacing Mark Seaby and Byron Sumner.
The Western Bulldogs have brought in Jordan Roughead to replace Easton Wood (ankle) for Sunday's match against the Lions at Etihad Stadium.
The Brisbane Lions welcome back Luke Power and Matt Maguire as they attempt to cover the long-term losses of Jonathan Brown (facial fracture) and Brent Staker (knee).
