Essendon's fading AFL finals hopes took a body blow on Monday with star forward Matthew Lloyd to miss up to a month with a bruised heel.

The Bombers skipper suffered the injury during the second quarter of Sunday's five-point loss to Richmond at the MCG.

Essendon football manager Paul Hamilton said Lloyd would definitely miss Sunday's game against West Coast at Subiaco but it was possible he would be sidelined for longer.

"It is an individual thing, but when you have a bruised heel, you think you're right, then all you have to do is get one more knock on it or land funny on it and it just nags you for some time," Hamilton said.

"We're hoping for the best with him but we history tells us that he's going to miss at least one, and there could be a few more weeks after that.

"He's pretty sore this morning.

"At this stage, only being a few hours after the game, we're not expecting anyone else to miss at the moment."

Midfielder Andrew Lovett was also walking on crutches before training on Monday while several other players were nursing knocks and bruises.

"(Lovett) got a knock and came back on and played and that's usually a good sign, if you can come back on the ground and sprint at full pace - you're usually going to be okay," Hamilton said.

"He's one of many guys who are just very sore at the moment.

"I think (Jobe) Watson, (Mark) McVeigh, Lovett, they all got corkies of some description.

"We're monitoring them but we're hoping they'll all be okay."

The Bombers are in eighth place and battling for that spot with Hawthorn and Port Adelaide, all on eight wins, but Bomber utility Jason Winderlich said the team remained positive.

"In the end the results fell our way with Adelaide winning (against the Power) so our dream's still alive and we're still in the eight," Winderlich said.

"It was disappointing to lose but now our destiny's in our own hands and I think that's a good thing.

"If we do happen to make the finals it would be good to earn our spot and not just luckily get in there."

Winderlich admitted the Bombers were jumped by Richmond.

"Probably we didn't think they would put as much pressure on as they did," he said.

"They were fantastic in shutting down our space and that probably resulted in us playing stop-start football, which isn't our brand which we want to play."

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP