Five West Coast Eagles gems, headed by midfield maestros Luke Shuey and Tim Kelly, will return in Sunday’s round two clash against North Melbourne at Marvel Stadium.

Premiership forwards Liam Ryan and Jack Darling will also resume, with accomplished defender Alex Witherden joining the glittering list of inclusions.

Unfortunately, as seems to be the case in this current climate, the club will also lose a cluster of diamonds under the AFL’s healthy and safety protocols. Champion forward Josh Kennedy, key defender Tom Barrass and midfielder Jack Redden, the Eagles’ best last Sunday, could not be considered.

Small forwards Isiah Winder and Zac Langdon were ruled out for the same reason. Winder was the substitute player last week while Langdon had an impact with his output, especially in the first half.

Skipper Shuey has been carefully managed in the post-Christmas training phase after a hamstring strain and he has ticked every box along the way to the point where he can resume.

His addition to an under-manned midfield that was eventually over run by Gold Coast, will be most welcome, as will the return of Kelly who had arguably the best pre-season of any player on the list but he missed under the health and safety protocols last week.

Ryan, who also isolated, returned to the track this week and added some spark and cheek around training while Witherden resumes after serving a one-game suspension imposed in the AAMI Community Series match against Fremantle a fortnight ago.

While those five established players were named in the starting 18, other inclusions on an extended bench are developing forward Jack Williams and Covid Contingency list players – former Roo Declan Mountford and former Fremantle mid/forward Stefan Giro.

It is the second successive week the club has needed to delve into the contingency list given the injury and health and safety protocols deployed in opening fortnight.