Round 20 Injury Update
Luke Hodge and Shane Savage are both set to face fitness tests before the side is selected to take on North Melbourne on Sunday
HAWTHORN captain Luke Hodge faces a fitness test before he's named for the clash with North Melbourne in Launceston on Sunday.
Hodge was a late withdrawal from the Hawks team that beat Fremantle by 51 points on the weekend after failing to recover in time from a knock to his knee suffered against Melbourne in round 18.
The 2008 Norm Smith medallist took part in Hawthorn's training session at Waverley Park on Tuesday, but has not yet been passed fit.
"He participated in most of training today, so we'll see how that settles down and make a call later in the week," Hawks football operations general manager Mark Evans told hawthornfc.com.au on Tuesday evening.
"He moved pretty well, so we'll wait and see how it pulls up."
Young wingman Shane Savage, who also missed the trip to Perth, is another facing a fitness test.
Savage received a knock to his shoulder in the win over the Demons.
"We'll make the call later in the week," Evans said.
Sam Mitchell rolled his ankle against Fremantle, but Evans reported that the in-form ball magnet had pulled up well and was not in doubt to face the Kangaroos.
Midfielder Chance Bateman and young big men Ryan Schoenmakers and Jordan Lisle are all fit and available for a call-up.
With the Box Hill Hawks having a bye on the weekend, the trio didn't get a chance to gain match practice in the VFL as they return from injuries.
But Evans said that could actually work in their favour.
"Sometimes you need players to be freshened up," he said.
"We've got consecutive weeks of travel, so that might actually turn out to be a bit of a bonus that they haven't played."
Evans again stopped short of ruling Ben Stratton out for the season, but he did admit that time was running out for the talented young defender.
Stratton has been out of action since injuring his PCL against Richmond in round three.
"He's training well," Evans said.
"He's running well and doing all that's asked of him in the gym, so we'll just let him keep going with his program and keep an eye on how he goes.
"There's not too many weeks left, but we'll just let him go and see where he gets to."
Premiership midfielder Clinton Young will miss this round after rolling his ankle in Box Hill's win over the Northern Bullants the week before their bye.
"We expected with the week off that he'd be fine, but he's going a bit slower so he might be another week," Evans said.
Mark Macgugan writes for hawthornfc.com.au and covers Hawks news for afl.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @mmacgugan.