Talented youngsters Campbell Chesser and Noah Long will make welcome returns to senior football on Sunday after being confirmed in the 22 to face Hawthorn in Launceston.

Chesser will resume at the top level after an encouraging comeback from a knee complaint for the WAFL Eagles last round, when he picked up 16 disposals on limited gametime in a new role across half-back and through midfield.

The 20-year-old is set for his fourth AFL game and first since he was part of the injury carnage the Eagles suffered in the round three RAC Derby.  

Energetic small forward Long has been working his way back from a hamstring complaint after playing the opening five matches in his first year on West Coast’s list.

While Long adds nous and skill to the attack, which has been undermanned in recent weeks, the Eagles have lost key forward Jack Darling for three-to-five weeks with a fractured arm which required surgery.

“There’s not an obvious replacement for Jack at the moment with the health of our boys. That’s OK, it’s just an opportunity for guys to play in different positions and for guys to step up and try to help us get a win,” coach Adam Simpson said on Friday.

“Jack has obviously been a little bit out of form but some of the things he did last week were very, very team orientated and I thought he was starting to build towards a little bit of the form we’d like to see him in.

“Probably the biggest hit at the moment is our forward line with (Liam) Ryan, (Jamie) Cripps, Darling, Samo (Petrevski-Seton), Long has been out, so trying makeshift forwards at the moment is something we’ve been finding a bit of a challenge.

“Ozzy (Allen) and Jake Waterman have been doing their best to hold up that end of the side.”

Third-year onballer Luke Edwards, who was last week's sub, was a confirmed out earlier on Friday after succumbing to illness.

“We lost Lukey Edwards, but it wasn’t Covid, it was just illness. The flu is just as powerful at the moment,” Simpson said.

“We’re just dealing with it. We’ll just take a bit more precaution with our day-to-day activities … and we’ll take a bigger contingency this week just in case because it’s not easy to fly emergencies to Launceston.”

West Coast will name its sub an hour before the Hawks clash from emergencies Elijah Hewett, Zane Trew, Rhett Bazzo and Greg Clark. 

Bouncedown for Sunday’s clash is at 11.10am WA time or 1.10pm local.