Luke Shuey has received relatively positive news on the injury front and West Coast coach Adam Simpson is optimistic the star skipper will bounce back well from his hamstring setback.

Shuey suffered a strain at training last Wednesday and will undertake the normal recovery protocols before re-joining the main squad on the track in the coming weeks.

While the past two seasons have been frustrating for the dynamic 31-year-old, who has managed 20 games due to several soft-tissue setbacks, the coach said Shuey remains in a positive frame of mind.

“There’s no surgery required, it’s a hamstring injury. Obviously, with his history it will take a little bit longer to repair but really unfortunate, he was training so well,” Simpson said.

“He had a really good block of training and it was the first incident in match sim.

“He’ll go through the normal recovery procedure. He’s still pretty upbeat and there’s still plenty of time before round one.”

With 48 days until the scheduled season-opener against Gold Coast, the Eagles are in the middle of an intense training block and preparing for pre-season games starting later this month.

New faces in the coaching ranks – headlined by Matthew Knights and Jarrad Schofield’s inclusions – plus amongst the playing group have added to the air of excitement heading into the 2022 campaign.  

“We’ve changed a few things, we’re training on some different methods, we’ve got some new coaches, there’s a different environment, different feel at the club from a football point-of-view – we’re excited,” Simpson said.

“It’s actually the time you’re meant to be really up and about and excited.

“Despite the doomsday-sayers and the predictions, we’ve had that before in the past and worked through it.

“The environment here is one of excitement. We’re training pretty hard, we’re training well and the results need to take care of themselves, of course.

“But we’re going in optimistic.”