Hawthorn Senior Coach Sam Mitchell has confirmed that midfielder Will Day will play his first AFL game of the season on Sunday afternoon against Sydney at the MCG.

Day has been sidelined with a stress fracture in his foot since January, but has been made available for Sunday’s clash after making a full recovery. 

Mitchell was excited about the 22-year-old’s return. 

“If he gets through training, he’ll come back into the side and we’re looking forward to having him out there,” Mitchell said.

“He’ll give us something a little different in the middle of the ground and I’m pleased he’s back.

“He’s worked really hard to get himself to this position and he’s ready to go.” 

Mitchell also encouraged fans to exercise patience around Day, having not played a senior game since Round 24 last year.

“He’s still young and he hasn’t played a heap of footy so it’s not like he’s going to be the man that fixes every problem we’ve had across the season so far,” Mitchell said.

“He’s an important player for us but I’m not expecting him to get best-on-ground in every game for the rest of the season.

“I think it’s important that he gets back out there and starts to find his feet for the rest of the season.”

Another exciting face set to grace the MCG is Hawthorn great Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin. 

Mitchell was particularly thrilled with this news, given his relationship with him as a premiership teammate. 

“I think when Lance Franklin’s coming to the MCG, everyone’s pretty excited, even if it is just as a spectator,” Mitchell said.

“He’s obviously a premiership teammate of mine personally and a guy that I spent so much time with.

“We had the pleasure of front-row seats to everything he was able to do both on and off the field.

“I’m enormously proud that he’s coming back to the MCG.

“Any access and anything that we can do to lean on Bud and his legacy will be fantastic for our playing group.”

In terms of the team’s on-field form, Mitchell hopes to emulate the success they experienced against North Melbourne last week. 

However, the Hawks coach stressed that in order to achieve that, the effort on the track needs to continue.

“In our training last week, there was a real pointed physical aspect to it, but also from a concentration (perspective), there’s a bit of a chip on your shoulder, you’re so disappointed in your performance the week before,” he said.

“This week, you don’t have the same motivation of the loss but you need to train in the same way.

“That’s the challenge for all of us, whether that’s staff or players, to make sure we’ve got the same focus and deliberate practice in our training to put together strong performances because that’s what the best sides do.

“We have to train at a level that gives us a chance to compete against the best sides and Sydney is one of them.”

Watch Sam Mitchell’s full press conference below.