HAWTHORN will rely on its midfield to control Friday night's clash with Essendon or risk having its undersized line-up exposed, Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson says.

Key defender Ryan Schoenmakers, a late withdrawal from the team that defeated Gold Coast last week, didn't train on Thursday and won't play on Friday night, leaving Clarkson with a dearth of key position players.

Star forward Lance Franklin will also miss through suspension, and big men Jarryd Roughead, Brent Renouf, Ben Stratton and Stephen Gilham are all out with long-term injuries.

"They (Essendon) have shown over the journey that they've been prepared to back in their talls, and I dare say they'd be looking at our side and saying, 'That's an area we can exploit Hawthorn'," Clarkson said from Waverley Park on Thursday morning.

"We can't pick too many talls, because we just haven't got them, so we'll just have to make do with what we've got.

"If they win the midfield battle then that will make it very tough for our smaller players.

"But if we can control the midfield then that might make it tough for Essendon to exploit us with their talls."

The Hawks had hoped that Schoenmakers would come up for the clash, but have decided his foot, which he hurt at training last Thursday, needs further rest.

However, Clarkson said the injury was not serious.

"He's got a bit of stress in a bone in his foot," Clarkson said.

"We think we've been able to nab it early, but he just needs to rest it and keep the weight off it for a while.

"We were hoping he'd be able to play this week but that's not going to be the case, so we'll just have to wait and see how it goes over the next couple of weeks."

Premiership players Brent Guerra and Chance Bateman both joined in training and are a chance to face the Bombers.

Small defender Rick Ladson, who was subbed off against the Suns after hurting his thigh, didn't train but Clarkson had yet to rule him out of contention.

Clarkson defended Franklin in the wake of his one-week suspension for a strike on Gold Coast's Maverick Weller, admitting the Coleman Medal leader would need to eliminate the bump almost completely from his game.

"It's tough," the Hawthorn coach said.

"He's six-foot-six and runs like the wind.

"You run that incident at full speed, Rick Ladson goes to tackle Weller and Weller changes his running direction because of it.

"Buddy was in a really good position to either lay a tackle or bump a split second before that incident happened.

"So it's hard to be too critical of players when they play the game at that speed and under fatigue, coupled with that is the fact that he's such a tall player."

The Hawks are ready for a torrid battle when the two traditional rivals run out against each other on Friday night.

Clarkson said the history built during the 1980s, when Essendon and Hawthorn played off in three successive Grand Finals from 1983-85, still impacted the way his players approached games against the Bombers.

"The games (in that era) were great games of footy; really hard, physical games, and that's where traditions are built.

"That legacy continues to stretch on even to tomorrow night's game.

"It'll be a fiercely fought battle and both groups of supporters hate to get beaten by the other side, so that makes it a great contest."

Mark Macgugan writes for hawthornfc.com.au and covers Hawthorn news for afl.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @mmacgugan