Ben McEvoy looks set to miss at least a month of football as he recovers from surgery on his fractured cheekbone.

The Hawks' ruckman suffered a nasty knock during Hawthorn's Round 16 win over the Bulldogs and was immediately sent to hospital by the Hawks' medicos.

"He had surgery the morning after the game on that cheekbone and surrounding areas," Director of High Performance Andrew Russell said.

"He's at home and in recovery mode. He's probably going to miss five or six games at this stage."

Fellow ruckman Marc Pittonet is also managing his own injury concern after rolling his ankle in Box Hill's win over Footscray. 

"He's been a  little bit sore for the first couple of days out of the game," Russell said.

"We expect him to play, but he'll be a test."

On a more positive note, Grant Birchall has progressed in his recovery from a long-term knee injury, reigniting hopes that he'll return before the end of 2018.

"He probably stagnated about a month ago and he was getting a whole lot of little muscle bits and pieces going on," Russell said.

"But he's adapting well. We think within the next week he'll start to do some ball work.

"And then when he starts to do that, we start to get a bit excited that we'll see him back out there later in the year."

Shaun Burgoyne (hamstring) is expected to return in approximately two weeks, while James Cousins (adductor) is a test to play for Box Hill.

Read: All the coaches' votes for Round 16