The Hawthorn coach said his captain's return, three weeks after striking North Melbourne counterpart Andrew Swallow, was particularly timely given fellow defender Grant Birchall's failure to recover from the ankle injury he picked up last week against Sydney.

"He's an important player for our footy club and gives us a lot of leadership and strength through the middle of the ground and in our back half, so he's a welcome addition to our side, particularly with Birchall going out," Clarkson said of Hodge.

"He'll be disappointed that he's missed some footy but those things happen from time to time. It's pretty uncharacteristic for Hodgey.

"Even now I don't think his intent was to strike Andrew high, but in the heat of battle sometimes it happens. He's a very tough and fair player, Hodgey, in most instances, untoward on that occasion and he copped his rap, but he's pretty keen to play well in the next few weeks."

Taylor Duryea and Daniel Howe are also included in a Hawks side that will be without Will Langford (corked calf), Matt Suckling (omitted) and Birchall.

"He's just had a jar to his ankle late in the game last week that didn't respond as well as we'd have liked earlier in the week," Clarkson said about the Tasmanian.

"So he'll hopefully just miss the one week, but with him going out it's really handy that Hodgey can come in and give us that stability throughout midfield and half-back when required."

A crowd of about 13,000 is expected as Hawthorn chase a 13th straight win at Aurora Stadium in what will be Luke Breust's 100th match.

Despite Gold Coast's horrendous injury list, Clarkson was wary of Rodney Eade's men.

"They've been battling a little bit with some of the injuries they've had and getting continuity with their form from week to week, but we've been a bit like that ourselves, so it's an important game for us.

"We enjoy playing down there at Launceston and it's really important that we start to roll some wins together."

Clarkson declined to comment on speculation linking his assistant Brendan Bolton with the vacant Carlton job.