The Dogs considered using Griffen as the substitute against the Eagles but opted to hold him back until he was able to play full matches.

Forward Liam Jones, defender Tom Williams and hard-ball winner Clay Smith are all also in line for selection for the match at Etihad Stadium.

Griffen will do extra training after the main session this week to try to build his workload and fitness. He may yet be held back another week if it is determined he is not able to play sufficient minutes.

Griffen has been troubled by back soreness and tightness that has caused soft-tissue problems in his legs. When he attempted to build up his workload, his problems flared,  but assistant coach Brett Montgomery said he had overcome the injury in recent weeks and now it was a matter of building his fitness.

"He got some tightness after a gruelling session in February, but he had done an enormous amount of work before that, so we are comfortable he will have a fair bit of work behind him," he said.

"In terms of time frame, we are confident he will be right for this week. We will monitor how he pulls up from training, but he was not that far away last week but we thought with the travel and other factors it was best to be conservative

"It won't really be whether he gets through training because we fully expect him to get through, it is more whether we think he has the work to be able to play his full game. Is he ready for this week with the amount we can play him or do we wait another week?

"We think we got over the hill with the injury quite some time ago, since then it has been about building the load and work in him so when he returns he is ready to play full matches.

"We are very confident that once he is back he is back; he is not back and his injury is being managed, or back and needing to monitor his game time ... that is why we took the cautious approach."