ESSENDON big man Patrick Ryder has backed Jake Carlisle and Joe Daniher to carry the club’s ruck stocks against Carlton after all but ruling himself out of Sunday night’s game.

Ryder confirmed his ankle was still heavily swollen, but he has been cleared of any serious damage and hopes to miss only one week of football.

“I’m most likely to miss this week, I’m still pretty sore at the moment,” Ryder said.

“Hopefully I will get everything right this week and (be) ready to tackle Freo next week.

“I’m still struggling to walk. I get a fair bit of pain. We’ve got to try to clear all that up, work hard with the physios to get it moving again, and we’ll go from there.”

Ryder, who was subbed out of last week’s loss to Hawthorn early in the third term, said he was confident the Bombers had the big man firepower to overcome the Blues, who have their own dilemma this week with Matthew Kreuzer’s foot soreness.

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“’Joey’ (Daniher) and Jake Carlisle … will probably have to shoulder a bit of the ruck this week,” he said.

“They are players who can play anywhere on the ground. That’s one of the good things about our team — our big men can play forward or back, and go into the ruck as well.”

The Bombers are desperately short of a pure ruckman going into the clash with the Blues, given Ryder’s injury and Tom Bellchambers’ pre-season ankle troubles.

Asked if the Bombers might elevate rookie Queensland ruckman Fraser Thurlow, Ryder said: “It all depends on his development — I don’t know how the coaches will see it.”

Ryder attended the launch of The Long Walk — which will take place on May 31 — and will celebrate the 10-year anniversary of Michael Long’s reconciliation walk to Parliament House in Canberra in 2004.

This year’s Long Walk will include a free “wellbeing” concert at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl before the 1993 Norm Smith Medal winner walks across to the MCG for the Dreamtime match between Essendon and Richmond.

Ryder said he had “huge respect” for what Long had achieved in football and outside of the game.

He said the Bombers cannot wait to get back out there against the Blues this week after coming so close to knocking off reigning premier Hawthorn last week.

“It’s always a close game (against Carlton),” he said. “Our boys will be fired up after losing last week. A lot of the boys thought we should have won that game.

“But we can take the confidence that our game plan and the way we played our footy stacks up against the best.”