DIRECTOR of High Performance Andrew Russell is hopeful that four Blues will be nearing availability as they return from injury.

Having ramped up their preparations in recent weeks, Darcy Lang, Harrison Macreadie, Caleb Marchbank and Tom Williamson have their eyes on a potential return to action early in the season.

Russell provided an update on the quartet, who have all made their way into skills training and ball work over recent weeks,

“Tommy Williamson has had a really good week on the training track, we’re really excited to see him doing ball work,” Russell said.

“He needs a good, consistent, hard training block to be ready to play over the next three or four weeks. We’ll put that into his body and we expect him to be ready early in the season.

“Marchbank, Macreadie and Lang… we’re really pleased with the way they’re going. They won’t be ready for Round 1 but we expect them to be ready early in the season.

“They’re a bit more progressed than Williamson and you’ll be pretty happy with the way they’re going and moving.”

After three practice matches in the lead-up to the season, Russell said the Blues were keen to put their hard work to the test after a positive start to 2019.

The ability to field a consistent side with minimal changes is something which will hold Carlton in good stead according to the Director of High Performance.

“The positive out of [the games] is that we’ve had a really consistent side out there — we haven’t had too many interruptions,” he said.

“From that point of view, we’re well positioned going into the season.

“We have a good list of players available and we also have a number of players coming back early in the season which should put us in a strong position.”