Essendon captain Dyson Heppell still hasn’t resumed running as recovery from foot surgery takes longer than planned.
Heppell played 18 games last year, with his troublesome foot having to be nursed through the latter stages of the season and into the finals before he underwent surgery.
The Bombers skipper said last month he expected to be able to play within the first month of the season but it’s emerged he still hasn’t started running.
Heppell said he was “hopeful” of beginning a running block in the coming weeks.
"The foot's actually coming along quite well," Heppell told Essendon’s website on Friday.
"We've still had access to one of our physios a couple of times a week and put in a really good program to get my foot in cherry ripe nick.
"Hopefully (I will) start to build into some running loads over the next couple of weeks, then it'd be a good 6-8 week build-up and hopefully by then we'll be back into some games and see if I can fire up for round two."