Hodge has been dogged by an Achilles injury for nearly two months and while he's made excellent progress in recent weeks, he refused to declare himself a certain starter against Adelaide at AAMI Stadium on Saturday night.
"We'll have to wait and see," Hodge said from Waverley on Tuesday.
"The main task was to get through Box Hill on Friday afternoon, then I got through yesterday's [training] session and pulled up really well, but we've still got another session on Thursday as well.
"I hope to get through that but we'll have to wait and see. I guess it's a big step. I played 50-odd minutes at Box Hill on Friday, but I guess now, with the three-man interchange rule, you can't expect to go in and play limited game time.
"I think I'll need to play about 90 per cent [of the game] if I do play so it's going to be a big jump.
"You can do as much running as you like during the pre-season, but it's a lot different to game fitness. Throughout the [Box Hill} game I felt really good, but it is a big jump."
While Hodge is desperate to lead the side out for the first time, he said that he would be happy to play at Box Hill again if that was deemed the best course of action by the club's coaches and fitness staff.
There has been speculation Hodge's interrupted pre-season might see him named the club's first substitute player, but he ruled himself out and gave a clue as to which way the Hawks' selectors might be leaning.
"With an Achilles, you have to keep it warm the whole time. Warming up and cooling down is not the best thing for it, so I don't think I'll be a substitute," he said.
"[Cameron Bruce] with his flexibility, with the interchange rotation and the sub, you need someone with the flexibility to play different positions," he said.
"We've seen at Melbourne that he's been able to play in the middle or wing/half-back or half-forward."
Hodge was unaware of the finer details of the AFL's new concussion rules, but he disagreed with it in principle despite the well-publicised case that saw teammate Jordan Lewis receive a heavy concussion against the Western Bulldogs last year then later come back on the ground.
"There have been a number of guys who have come back on and been ok," he said.
"Lewy said that he probably shouldn't have played the next week, but it's a case by case scenario.
"Some concussions are really bad and you can't come back on the ground, but we've seen in the past that if you sit down for a couple of quarters then you're ok and if you do pass the test, then you're able to come back on.
"You can't really do much. If they throw it in then there's no point crying about it. You just have to get on with it."
Luke Hodge is a $428,300 midfielder in the Toyota AFL Dream Team competition.
