West Coast star Jeremy McGovern only needs to pull up without any soreness after main training on Wednesday to book his return against Sydney in round five.

The four-time All Australian backman has been out of action for the past two rounds after copping a suspension and then twisting his ankle in a scrimmage against Brisbane’s reserves.

“We’re really confident Jeremy will get up. He wasn’t far off last week but just pulled up sore following the Captain’s Run session so we didn’t want to take the risk,” General Manager – Football Craig Vozzo told westcoasteagles.com.au.

“He’s slowly built into this week and then we’ve got main training tomorrow, so if he gets through that he’ll be available.”

Diligent midfielder Mark Hutchings is also making encouraging progress after a frustrating recovery from an iliotibial band issue.

“It’s been a really difficult process for Mark, he’s a real pro, but we’ve just had some ongoing issues with the ITB area and swelling and we think we’ve now turned the corner,” Vozzo said.

“He’s had a really positive week on the track with his running and we’re hoping now it’s a four-week build into return to play.”

The Eagles have a healthy list to choose from and draftees Ben Johnson and Callum Jamieson are both expecting game minutes this weekend in a likely reserves scrimmage against Gold Coast.

Jamieson got through some intraclub work recently without issue while Johnson has shown good signs from his own shoulder complaint.

“Benny Johnson is going well. He did some training last week and the week before with our guys,” Vozzo said.

“He’ll be available for some more game minutes this week. We’re hoping to have a non-selected players game versus the Gold Coast guys this weekend, in which we might be able to introduce Ben into some game work, probably about 40 minutes or so."