West Coast coach Andrew McQualter has announced that Tim Kelly will make his return from a toe issue sustained a training ahead of Round 7.
Kelly injured his toe and missed the clash against Hawthorn but has overcome the issue this week to play in his 150th match.
The 30-year-old was dropped earlier this season after poor form, but will come straight into the side for the Melbourne match.
โWe'll get Tim back into our side. We think he's incredibly valuable to our team,โ McQualter said.
โHe went away to the WAFL a couple of weeks ago and worked on what he needed to and we think he helps us a lot.โ
McQualter also confirmed injury-plagued veteran Elliot Yeo visited a surgeon this week but was unsure of the outcome and Yeo's updated injury recovery timeline.
โReasonably competitive guy, Elliot, which I've come to learn this year. He's frustrated that he can't help and he just wants to help our team,โ he said.
โThat's the way he's wired. He'll get himself back as soon as he can.โ
The first-year Eagles coach also backed in out-of-form star Oscar Allen to return to his strengths, both physically and mentally.
Allen, who plays his 100th game this weekend, was managed against the Bombers in Round 7 to provide some mental reprieve for the embattled forward who has been the top backpage story with a decision on his contract and future looming.
"Really what we've done the last couple of weeks is try and support Oscar as much as we can,โ McQualter said.
โWhen he missed a game of football, he wanted us to not speak about it and we granted his wishes, because that's his mental health that we were talking about.
โHe had a small break away, which is what he needed. I think we forget these people are human.
โWe choose to live our lives publicly, because that is the nature of our business, but we all have emotions, we're human.
โHe's in great spirits at the moment and we'll continue to support him.โ
West Coast have started the season woefully with seven straight losses, but take on another bottom-four side in Melbourne at home in Round 8 in one of their strongest chances to break their winless drought.
