Essendon coach Matthew Knights will keep the handbrake off by insisting he won't compromise his AFL side's running game despite the Bombers' ongoing hamstring curse.

The Dons have been plagued by soft-tissue injuries in the early rounds, as five players are sidelined with hamstring complaints while captain Matthew Lloyd is battling to overcome calf soreness to play St Kilda at Telstra Dome on Friday night.

The frustration has reached the point where Knights, his assistant coaches, fitness team and medical staff have begun investigating why the Bombers are so beset by hamstring and calf injuries, and what they can do to alleviate them.

Knights suspects Essendon's harder running in 2008, short breaks between games and more matches on the Dome's hard surface are all factors, but is loath to begin changing the game plan he has implemented.

GPS data taken from the round-three win over Carlton and the corresponding game a year ago showed the Bombers are running faster and harder, which is good, but also makes them more susceptible to fatigue.

But Knights has no plans to ease back from full throttle.

"I've said from day one we're going to set our foundation right at this club in regards to our defence, defensive actions, and our game styles," he said.

"Predominantly we've worked on our defence and our fast-break, or fast, exciting tempo.

"I will not disturb the development of this group by throwing extra things that the club's not ready for yet.

"Yes, we are working on (implementing) a slower tempo, but we're only in the infancy stage of that ... I'm not going to put it in if we haven't set the foundations right."

Mark McVeigh, Sam Lonergan, Leroy Jetta, Scott Gumbleton and Courtenay Dempsey are all out with hamstring injuries, while Andrew Welsh has overcome his and could play the Saints.

Lloyd trained for most of Tuesday's session, but must recover well and then train again Thursday to be any chance of playing this week, but Knights said he would not jeopardise his full-forward given the dearth of other key forwards.

"With Scott Lucas and Scott Gumbleton not in the team, we can't take any risks with Matthew because we have to make sure he's right for the whole season and not just think in the short-term with this week," he said.

Knights will wait until he has collected more data before putting a finger on exactly what was causing the injury headaches.

But he said the AFL's scheduling of Essendon playing every six days to this point in the season did not help.

"There's so many games that (do not have) a finals intensity and when you have three six-day breaks then that has to be looked at," he said.

"The way you structure the draw, I don't think that's utopia in regards to teams having three six-day breaks early in the year, particularly when your players aren't fully conditioned and are finding their feet a bit in the first rounds."

Essendon will also have Angus Monfries available, after a virus kept him out of the loss to the Western Bulldogs.

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