West Coast Eagles chief stopper Mark Hutchings will be sidelined for three weeks after succumbing to a hamstring injury at the weekend.

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Hutchings, who left the field late in the first term after re-injuring his left hamstring, bravely returned to the field in the second term but eventually retired to the bench and played no further part in the game.

West Coast Eagles general manager of football Craig Vozzo said Hutchings would now aim to be available for selection midway through the finals series.

“Unfortunately for Hutch he suffered that hamstring strain part way through the first quarter. He fought on fairly bravely playing part of the second, but we decided to shut him down,” Vozzo said.

“It’s ended up being, on scan, a low-grade hamstring tear in the same hamstring he hurt earlier in the year.

“So it’s probably looking like a three-week recovery period. He’s moving around quite well already, but we’ll see how he goes in the next three weeks.”

The WAFL Eagles, who play East Fremantle at Mineral Resources Park on Sunday, should be boosted by the return of running defenders Luke Foley (calf) and Brodie Riach (stress fracture), as well as skipper Fraser McInnes (quad).

Vozzo said the trio only needed to complete training this week to be available for selection.

“Young Luke has made really good progress over the last two weeks. We’ve held him back actually, given he had a re-strain of that calf” Vozzo said.

“Big Fraser has had a couple of weeks off with a quad injury; he’s looking good.

“Elevated training this week, we’ll main train today, expect him to get through that, touch wood, and if he does he’ll be available to play.

“Brodie’s elevated his training really well and probably ahead of where we anticipated.

“If he gets through training today he’ll be available for selection.”

Running machine Josh Smith, who is on the comeback trail from a hamstring injury, is making good strides and is eyeing off one of his last major hurdles before being cleared to play in the coming weeks.

“He’s trained really well over the last fortnight. He’s got a really significant training session coming up in terms of distance covered and speed,” Vozzo said.

“We’re expecting him to get through that, which will tick the final box in his recuperation.

“Then he’ll probably have another week and then be available for selection in the next one to two weeks.”

Jarrod Brander, who recently underwent hamstring tendon surgery, is moving freely and in good spirits following the procedure.

“His movements probably better than we thought it would be (post-surgery) given past history with these types of things,” Vozzo said.

“So it’s good progress, it’ll be a long journey for Jarrod, but early stages are really good.”