Gold Coast key forward Tom Lynch has been in damaging form in recent weeks, and with fellow tall timber Sam Day and Charlie Dixon having also performed strongly, the Western Bulldogs may be forced to rush gun defender Jordan Roughead back to senior level.

The 200cm full-back has been missing in action since damaging his AC joint in the Bulldogs’ round three clash with Richmond.

A key pillar to Brendan McCartney’s backline, Roughead would provide the Bulldogs mentor with valuable size and length against Gold Coast’s trio of talls inside 50.

With the 23-year-old back to full training, Bulldogs Medical Services Manager, Andrew McKenzie, said the defender would need to pass a series of fitness tests at Thursday’s main training session to play, but would come under serious consideration at match committee if given the green light by medical staff.

“Jordan has been in training, he’s moving well [and] he’s feeling really good,” McKenzie said.

“He needs to get through training on Thursday and we will make an assessment from there.”

Meanwhile, Queenslander Tom Williams is facing a race against time to prove his fitness ahead of Sunday’s clash, after suffering calf tightness following the Bulldogs’ win against the Demons.

“Tom was obviously sore out of the game last week; it’s settled down really well and we will see on Thursday how he’s tracking and make another judgement on that,” McKenzie said.