West Coast Eagles star Brandon Starcevich facing mini pre-season when he recovers from lingering injury

West Coast coach Andrew McQualter says Brandon Starcevich will undergo a mini pre-season following his latest injury setback, as he defended the prized recruit’s delayed start to the season.

Starcevich is set to be sidelined for another 6-8 weeks due to a stubborn calf issue, which was preceded by a minor knee complaint as well as concussion issues last year.

It comes as the dual Brisbane premiership defender also missed three months in 2025 following a head knock in round one.

McQualter said Starcevich’s return from the lingering calf issue would be similar.

“Now it’s just about building him back up,” McQualter said. “He actually did a similar thing at the start of last year, almost did himself a mini pre-season around this time.

“So that’s what Starce is going to have to do now, which is why the timeline has gone a little bit longer. But I’ve said it the whole time with Starce’s injury, we’ve got him for the long term and we see him being a really important player for us for a long time.

“It’s a shame because he’s such a good player and we’d love to have him now, but we’re going to try to set him up for a great back half of the year.”

McQualter said while the 26-year-old had not been able to get out on the park, his leadership and experience off-the-field had already had an impact on the club.

“I’m sure that he’s a bit flat that he’s not able to be out on the field helping our team but in our building, he’s still been a really valuable asset to our football club,” he said.

“In our meetings, he’s got great football knowledge and great IQ. He’s been able to impart that on our players and hopefully we get him out on the park soon.”

West Coast will be without another pair of experienced players against Sydney on Saturday, with felow former Lions Elliot Yeo (groin) and Deven Robertson (suspension) ruled out.

“It’s going to be hard, they’re two of our bulls,” McQualter.

“It’s not easy to replace that amount of contest and pressure but we’re lucky we have some real depth in that space, so we’ll be able to shuffle some magnets and do the best we can in there.”

McQualter said the Eagles would consider bringing Elijah Hewett into the side but would not take any risks with the luckless midfielder.

The former first-round pick played limited minutes on return from a quad injury in a WAFL practice match last weekend.

“Elijah has missed a fair bit of football now. Since (Christmas) he’s one played one or two practice matches, so we’ll just go away, train today and have a look at match committee to see if he’s (ready),” he said.

“We want to set him up for success and we don’t want to get him in and now be quite ready, so we’ll work through that.”

The Eagles will be forced to make another change with small forward Jacob Newton also sidelined by a significant foot injury.

McQualter revealed the former mid-season pick would likely require surgery, which could put a line through his season.

Meanwhile, the future of Harry Edwards remains in limbo after a concussion earlier this season, the latest in a series of concerning head knocks for the key defender.

“Harry is still going through the protocols, we’re not putting a timeline on it at the moment,” McQualter said.

“We’ll just keep working through our protocols, we understand he’s had a couple of head knocks now in a row.

“We’re treating it really seriously but we’ve got guys who are experts in this space. We’re going to support Harry the best we can and we’re hopeful he can be back playing footy soon.”