HAWTHORN has pledged not to take an underdone Lance Franklin into Saturday night's big clash against the unbeaten Geelong.

The superstar forward faces a test on his injured calf on Thursday after withdrawing late from Sunday's win over Fremantle.

Hawks football operations general manager Mark Evans said Franklin would only be selected if fully fit.

"We'll take it through to Thursday and see where it's at," Evans told hawthornfc.com.au on Tuesday afternoon.

"He'll need to prove that he can run and sprint and change direction and cope with all of the footy load, and if he can do that he'll play.

"[But] we won't take a risk.

"If he's not able to perform the way we need him to perform he doesn't play."

Evans said the club was still none-the-wiser as to whether the two-time All Australian had a minor tear in the calf or just bruising.

"He was scanned last week, and the scan was inconclusive," Evans said.

"But it doesn't really matter. If he's got the function he can play, and if he hasn't, he can't."

Evans indicated that NAB AFL Rising Star nominee Shane Savage, who also missed Sunday's match with a calf problem, would almost certainly be available for selection.

"It was more tightness than anything else, so nothing of any great seriousness," Evans said.

"Being a young player, you're always more protective, so we took him out last week but he's fine to go this week."

Premiership player Xavier Ellis, who has not played a senior match since round seven, has been declared unavailable for selection and sent into a training phase in a bid to get his body right for the second half of the season.

Ellis had a reduced pre-season after undergoing hip surgery at the end of last year, and has struggled to find peak form in 2011 while battling niggling back, glute and calf tightness.

"We've decided to take him back and give him a reasonable training block," Evans said.

"I think he's into the second week of that now, so we'll see where he gets to inside a week or two.

"It's about trying to break the cycle of a few niggly injuries and get him as fit as possible so that when he comes back he can have the best impact."

Evans said ruckmen David Hale and Brent Renouf had both pulled up fine from their return matches in the VFL on Saturday.

Renouf has not played a senior match since tearing his hamstring against Port Adelaide in round seven, and Hale has been out with a knee injury suffered against St Kilda the following week.

Evans said the timeframe on young defender Ben Stratton's return from a ruptured PCL is "open-ended", not ruling the 22-year-old out of playing again this season.

Stratton injured the knee against Richmond in round three.

"He's progressing very well, but it's such early stages," Evans said.

"I think we'd keep it open-ended at this point in time.

"It doesn't really change what he needs to do this week, next week, this month or next month.

"We'll keep it open-ended just to see where he gets to, but he's got a long way to go still."

Midfielder Chance Bateman remains in a moon boot in his second week of recovery from a high-grade ankle sprain suffered against the Western Bulldogs.

Injury list
Chance Bateman (ankle) 3-5 weeks
Cameron Bruce (knee) 3-4 weeks
Lance Franklin (calf) test
Stephen Gilham (knee) indefinite
Angus Litherland (foot) indefinite
Ben Stratton (knee) indefinite

Mark Macgugan writes for hawthornfc.com.au and covers Hawthorn news for afl.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @mmacgugan.