MELBOURNE has named a squad of 26 players to take to Marvel Stadium on Thursday night when it meets Carlton in the AAMI Community Series.

The clash, which kicks off at 7.20pm AEDT, will see premiership players Bayley Fritsch, Jake Lever and Jack Viney take to the field for the first time this year, after the trio missed last week’s run against North Melbourne.

While the Demons are naming a strong line-up for their final hit-out of the pre-season, Performance Manager Selwyn Griffith says they will be without a couple of big-name defenders.

“There’s just a few players that pulled up a little bit tight after the game (against the Kangaroos),” Griffith told Melbourne Media after Wednesday’s training run.

“So Steven May and Michael Hibberd had a little bit of tightness following that game.

“We gave them every opportunity to be available for the Carlton game but unfortunately they’ll miss this match but will be ready for Round 1.

“Trent Rivers finished the game, but the following day presented with a little bit of knee soreness, and with follow up imaging we found that he’s got a low-grade PCL strain.

“So he’ll miss the next three to four weeks but is progressing well.

“Harrison Petty, who’s recovering from the surgical intervention on the calf corky that he had, is progressing well and has integrated into running

“He’ll look to return to performance in the next three to four weeks.

“And Christian Salem had an incident at the end of the match against North Melbourne where a player fell across his knee.

“We gave him every opportunity to be ready to play against Carlton but unfortunately he’ll miss this week as well, but will be ready for Round 1.”

The available players who weren’t selected in Melbourne’s squad will partake in a VFL practice match at IKON Park from 12.50pm AEDT, with that match also being open to the general public.

Take a look at Melbourne’s full line-up, and injury list, below:

Squad

4 – James Harmes

5 – Christian Petracca

6 – Luke Jackson

7 – Jack Viney

8 – Jake Lever

9 – Charlie Spargo

10 – Angus Brayshaw

11 – Max Gawn

12 – Toby Bedford

13 – Clayton Oliver

15 – Ed Langdon

17 – Jake Bowey

20 – Adam Tomlinson

23 – James Jordon

25 – Tom McDonald

26 – Sam Weideman

29 – Jayden Hunt

30 – Alex Neal-Bullen

31 – Bayley Fritsch

32 – Tom Sparrow

33 – Oskar Baker

36 – Kysaiah Pickett

37 – Kade Chandler

42 – Daniel Turner

44 – Joel Smith

50 – Ben Brown

Injury List

Michael Hibberd

Soreness | Ready for Round 1

Steven May

Soreness | Ready for Round 1

Christian Salem

Knee Soreness | Ready for Round 1

Trent Rivers

Knee/PCL | 3-4 weeks

Harrison Petty

Calf | 3-4 weeks