Gun GWS midfielder Jacob Hopper will make his long-awaited return from a knee injury in the AFL clash against Brisbane in Canberra on Saturday.

Hopper, 25, hasn’t played since round one when he struggled with knee pain after off-season surgery and was forced to go under the knife again in March after scans revealed a new injury.

But interim coach Mark McVeigh confirmed on Tuesday he’ll be back in the side this weekend after consecutive outings in the VFL, building back towards form that had him in All-Australian contention last season.

“He played a week ago in the VFL … in really tough conditions, we felt that we wanted to give him another week just to give himself the best opportunity to come in and have a real impact at AFL level,” McVeigh told reporters.

“We can’t forget that he’s missed 15 weeks, which is a long time, and he played a game in the VFL in heavy rain conditions.

“On the weekend he was fantastic. He played pretty much 100 per cent, had 32 possessions and he’ll come straight back into our lineup which is fantastic.”

Connor Idun will also be included after missing last week’s loss to Port Adelaide through health and safety protocols while Phil Davis (hamstring) and Adam Kennnedy (concussion) will drop out of the lineup.

However McVeigh hinted more changes might be on the way.

With Hopper further boosting already-strong midfield depth, he said he’d think laterally to get the best out of his troops.

“We obviously know how good (Hopper) is as an inside midfielder and we will have to shuffle the decks,” he said.

“There might be a couple of other changes … we’ll get a really good look at everyone and hopefully we’ve got a full book to pick from but there will be some changes.”

Meanwhile, McVeigh confirmed he’d be interested in applying for North Melbourne’s vacant coaching role after they sacked David Noble on Tuesday morning.

“I’ve obviously got a passion to do it. There’s fantastic candidates all over Australia, but I’m open to anything to be quite honest,” he said.

“First and foremost for me though, it’s (GWS), this is where I want to be, this is who I want to coach.”