ESSENDON is set to regain ruckman Matthew Leuenberger for Sunday's clash with Carlton as it looks to continue its unbeaten start to the season.

Leuenberger trained with the main group on Tuesday morning at the club's Tullamarine headquarters and is likely to face the Blues after overcoming the hamstring strain he sustained in the JLT Community Series.

It is a welcome boost for the club, who has had to rely on stand-in big man Shaun McKernan to shoulder the ruck duties while Leuenberger and Tom Bellchambers (knee) recovered from injury.

"Leuenberger's ready to go. He passed everything pretty much late last week, so he will have a full week this week and be ready to go," coach John Worsfold said.

"We think [his inclusion will be] important. McKernan's done really well, but it still has meant we've been down on hit-outs and well down on hit-outs to advantage and potentially clearances.

"We still think having a classy ruckman like Bellchambers or Leuenberger available would be helpful to us."

Essendon was beaten 44-24 in the hit-outs in its 27-point win over the Brisbane Lions last week, with Lions ruckman Stefan Martin's dominance in the middle bringing his team back into the contest in the third term.

The Bombers also lost the hit-out count 39-31 in their round one victory over Hawthorn, although McKernan was excellent that night with 17 disposals and an important goal.

Bellchambers has played three practice games in the VFL after off-season knee surgery, but Worsfold hinted that he would have another game at that level before being considered for senior selection.

"With Tom we're really just weighing up whether we think he's done enough to now play AFL footy at the level we'll be expecting him to," he said.

"My gut feel is we think he'll need another hit-out to round out a full game and full match loads. He's been building up towards that without really hitting it yet."

Ben Howlett has been ruled out of facing the Blues after suffering a hamstring strain against the Lions, while Josh Green, who Howlett replaced last week, is unlikely to return to the side as he continues his rehabilitation from a hamstring problem.

Green trained away from the main group on Tuesday.

The Bombers beat Carlton in round 23 last year to finish their wooden-spoon season on a high, and Worsfold said although there had been plenty of positives from the side's first two weeks, there are still areas to improve.

"We've got a long way to go to be playing the perfect game of footy we're aiming for," Worsfold said.