Hodge missed the opening four rounds of the home-and-away season before returning in the Club’s Round 5 loss to the Swans at Aurora Stadium.
Hodge played his best game for the year against the Saints last week, but after a bruising encounter with the 2010 grand finalists, the Club won’t be taking any risks with their skipper.
“Hodgey is a bit sore, but he’s still a chance to play and we’ll probably still select him in the side tonight,” Clarkson said.
Clarkson says though, that Hodge is a chance to play despite the six-day turnaround.
“It’s a six-day break and he did some training this morning so we’ll wait and see how he goes," he said.
“He can still recover a fair bit in terms of his rehab, (but) If he had to play right now, he’d be in a bit of strife I reckon.”
Taking into consideration that it’s still early in the season, Clarkson’s no risk policy will play a role when the match-committee meet this afternoon to select the side.
He admitted though, that his inspirational skipper will be given every chance to recover.
“He’s ready to play, he’s just got a couple of bruises and knocks and we just need to make sure he recovers well from them,” he said.
The Hawks’ depth is an added advantage, with a number of senior players impressing in the VFL last weekend, and could come in and play their role.
“We just don’t want to take any risks this early in the season, it’s an important game for us to win so we want to go in with fresh blokes," Clarkson said.
“If Hodgey isn’t quite there, then we’ll just go in with a fresh guy and hopefully get him back the week after.”
Defender Josh Gibson missed the win over the Saints with an ankle injury sustained in the loss to the Swans, and forced him from the field.
But with defender Ryan Schoenmakers improving each week, Clarkson says that like Hodge, the Club won’t take any risks with Gibson.
“We just probably won’t take any risks with Gibbo, he’s nearly right to go,” he said.
“He’s very, very close, we just need to make a call as a match committee this afternoon.
“He trained with Hodgey this morning so we’ll wait and see how they go.”
The Hawks will name their side to take on the Demons tonight, to be released on hawthornfc.com.au at 6.25pm.
Kate Salemme is a member of Hawthorn Football Club’s Digital media team reporting exclusively for hawthornfc.com.au from the Ricoh Centre.
RELATED
Read hawthornfc.com.au's match preview, Looking ahead to Melbourne to see a coach, player and fan's view of the game. Sam Mitchell spoke exclusively to hawthornfc.com.au this week ahead of Firday night's match, read what he thinks is the key to team success.
