Hawthorn forward Paul Puopolo has avoided a serious foot injury and could face St Kilda in Sunday’s AFL clash at Etihad Stadium.

Puopolo was hurt in the Hawks’ 53-point win over Gold Coast last Saturday, but football manager Chris Fagan says the pint-sized tackling machine has since made “some rapid improvement”.

“We’ll wait and see what later in the week brings. We don’t play until Sunday, so we’ll give him every chance,” Fagan told the club website on Tuesday.

Veteran midfielder Jordan Lewis (shoulder) was a last-minute withdrawal in round nine and should return on the weekend, while Grant Birchall (ankle) and Will Langford (calf) are also in contention to face the Saints.

In a further boost for the reigning premiers, Ben McEvoy, Matt Spangher and Zac Webster have recovered from their respective hamstring injuries.

Meanwhile, Melbourne confirmed key forward Chris Dawes (calf) will miss the Queen’s Birthday clash with Collingwood.

“He ran really quick this (Tuesday) morning and trained well over the weekend, but it’s just been niggling away for two or three weeks,” Demons elite performance manager Dave Misson told the club website.

“We just want to give him a chance to get rid of it totally, so he can get back that explosiveness and marking power.

“We think another week off would be good.”

Misson expected Dom Tyson (knee) would be fit enough to play in the VFL or AFL.

Greater Western Sydney also received some good news on the injury front, with Rhys Palmer (shoulder), Liam Sumner (foot and wrist) and Jacob Townsend (foot) all passed fit.