Hawthorn captain Luke Hodge will make his injury comeback through the club’s VFL affiliate Box Hill on Saturday.

Hodge, who is returning from a knee injury, has not played an AFL game since round six.

That was just his second game of the year, after he started the season sidelined by a calf injury.

Hodge has been close to returning on several occasions but experienced setbacks with his knee complaint.

“It’s been small stuff, where you just go for the mark and it pinches a little bit or there was a little bit of fluid on the knee two weeks ago,” Hodge told the Ten Network’s Before the Game on Thursday night.

“That put me back two weeks but I’ve trained non-stop for the past two weeks and it feels really good.”

Hodge said the club had weighed up having him return straight to the top level against Collingwood at the MCG on Saturday but decided he was better off building match fitness in the second tier first.

“The fact is I haven’t played for 12 weeks and the (AFL) guys have been playing some good football,” he said.

The Hawks have posted a succession of big wins in their past six matches.

But with none of those opponents currently in the top eight, Hodge said they faced a huge test over the next three rounds, with clashes against the Magpies, Essendon and Geelong.