ESSENDON coach Matthew Knights is confident the health of his list is finally reaching an acceptable level after its pre-season got off to a rocky start.

The club kept hospital staff busy over the September-October period with a plethora of players booked in for post-season surgeries and routine clean-outs.

But after starting the summer campaign with just 20 players available for full training, the Bombers are on the way back with the rehab group getting smaller by the day.

"Guys like Adam McPhee, Jason Laycock … Tayte Pears and David Myers had minor hips and both those guys are going really well," Knights said on Monday at La Trobe University, where Essendon held a training session.

"I spoke to Jason Laycock this morning and he's very close to joining in training.

"Adam McPhee basically could have joined in today but we're just holding him back a little bit.

"Apart from that, there's not too many concerns."

A late addition to the casualty list was experienced midfielder Mark McVeigh, who injured a toe in training last week.

"He was off-line and changed direction, and there's a little bit of a fracture on the toe," Knights explained.

"He's come out of the moon boot already so it's probably a three-week scenario.

"Come late December, early January we think he'll be fine. We've just got to be a little patient with that.

"It's a shame because Mark had really been flying and going well, so it's a bit of a disappointment but it's something that we can manage pretty well."

Knights also said he was optimistic about the futures of another midfielder, Jason Winderlich, and forward Scott Gumbleton, after both players battled injury-plagued seasons.

"Jason Winderlich is probably the one we're really positive about at the moment because he had a major back operation and the first time he had it done, it wasn't successful," he said.

"He had a lot of nerve pain and reaction, but he's had the second operation and he's moving much freer.

"He's really feeling good about himself and at the moment, it looks really good for next year.

"Scott Gumbleton, who's had an enormous amount of injury problems, has completed all the sessions so that's going well for him and he's pretty happy about it.

"It's not going too bad at this stage [overall]."