HAWTHORN is determined that Cyril Rioli's second hamstring injury of 2011 will be his last, and will delay the important small forward's return until after its round 17 bye.

The young star was kept out of action for a fortnight earlier in the season with a right hamstring strain, and suffered a minor recurrence against Essendon on Friday night.

Hawks football operations general manager Mark Evans said the timing of the club's bye would provide a good opportunity to get the 21 year-old's body right for the remainder of the season.

"It's a hamstring on the minor side, or more likely he's stirred up some scar tissue from a previous injury," Evans told hawthornfc.com.au on Wednesday.

"Usually these things are quite minor, and he'll get up to reasonable speed very quickly, (but) we're likely to take that little bit longer with it so that we don't have a third event during the year.

"You could make it zero to one week, or with the bye we can give him a good training block and make sure when he comes back he's in a better space not to re-injure."

Hawthorn faces second-placed Collingwood on Sunday before a trip to Launceston to face the Brisbane Lions ahead of its second bye of the season.

The club then takes on Melbourne at the MCG in round 18.

Midfielder Brad Sewell, who injured the medial ligament in his left knee against the Bombers, could also target a comeback against the Demons.

"So long as he is careful early on he'll have a pretty good recovery," Evans said.

"We'll have a better idea next week, but that's how it's looking at this stage (a return after the bye)."

Evans said Thomas Murphy, a late withdrawal from the Essendon clash with a neck/shoulder issue, was a likely starter on Sunday.

"He possibly could have played last week, so we'd expect that he'd be OK (this week)," Evans said.

"I think he'd carried it for a couple of weeks and it was slowly getting worse, so (missing a game) was just to break the cycle more than anything, and hopefully that'll work for him."

However, Murphy's fellow defender Ryan Schoenmakers will now spend a further two or three weeks on the sidelines, with the Hawks opting to take a careful approach to his return from foot soreness.

The 20 year-old hurt his foot at training leading into Hawthorn's round 13 clash with Gold Coast and didn't travel with the team to Tasmania.

He was then listed as 'test' leading into last week's win over the Bombers, but didn't come up.

"He still had some soreness in his foot at the end of last week, and that really determined it," Evans said.

"Particularly given the stage of the season, it doesn't seem too wise to be cavalier on these sorts of injuries.

"I would've thought being a bit more prudent is the way to go."

Evans reported that Clinton Young (hamstring) and Rick Ladson (thigh) were both likely to be passed fit provided they get through training on Thursday.

Another premiership player, Xavier Ellis was also close to taking the field, although he was not likely to be seen in the senior team immediately.

Ellis has spent the past month in a "training block" seeking a return to peak fitness after battling niggling back, glute and calf tightness throughout the early part of the season.

He has not played a senior match since round seven.

"Probably the continuation of the training block would be some matches in the VFL," Evans said.

"Depending on where he gets to tomorrow, that could be as early as next week."

Evans said Brent Renouf (gall bladder removal) and Jarryd Roughead (Achilles tendon rupture) were still resting following surgery two weeks ago.

"'Roughy' in the first couple of weeks has very, very low mobility," Evans said.

"So we'll see a bit more of him around the club in the next few weeks, but he's still away from a lot of activity for two to three months I would think."

Injury list
Cameron Bruce (knee) 3-4 weeks
Xavier Ellis (calf) test
Stephen Gilham (knee) indefinite
Rick Ladson (thigh) test
Angus Litherland (foot) indefinite
Tom Murphy (shoulder) test
Brent Renouf (gall bladder) TBC
Cyril Rioli (hamstring) 2-3 weeks
Jarryd Roughead (Achilles) indefinite
Ryan Schoenmakers (foot) 2-3 weeks
Brad Sewell (knee) 2-3 weeks
Ben Stratton (knee) indefinite
Clinton Young (hamstring) test

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