Reigning club champion Tim Kelly is set to return against Hawthorn on Sunday but midfield colleague Dom Sheed will miss at least another match.

Kelly has been dealing with a hip issue and sore knee, which forced him to miss the past three matches either side of the bye.

But he is available to return, provided he gets through training, as the Eagles’ injury list shortens to four players.

“Good news for Tim. He’s missed a couple of weeks with his hip and a bit of a grumbly knee, but he’ll train this week and we expect him to play on the weekend,” High Performance Manager Mat Inness told westcoasteagles.com.au.

Sheed sustained a hamstring injury in the last game before the bye against North Melbourne and is not quite ready to resume.

“Dom had a good training session on Saturday. As he was getting up to high speed he had a little bit of awareness, so for that reason he won’t play this week so we’ll reassess after the next couple of days and see where he’s at,” Inness said.

In pleasing news, emerging pair Elijah Hewett (foot) and Rhett Bazzo (groin) are closing in on making their returns.

“Elijah is going really well. He joined in full training today, so progressing really well. Hopefully he’ll be back playing in the next two-to-three weeks,” Inness said.

“Rhett, similar to Elijah, full-trained today so we expect to see him out there – as long as he progresses really well – over the next two-to-three weeks.”