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Selwood trains strongly for Eagles

Scott Selwood could be back before the start of the AFL season. Pic: WA News

West Coast midfielder Scott Selwood could return from an ankle injury before round one in a major boost to the Eagles' 2015 aspirations.

Selwood has been gradually increasing his training and showed promising signs yesterday. He trained with the main squad and then ran freely in a solid session with the club's WAFL players after the team which will play against Carlton today had left the field.

Ankle surgery has severely disrupted Selwood's pre-season.

He was restricted to 12 games last year.

While Jack Darling remains sidelined with a foot injury which will almost certainly see him miss the start of the season, assistant coach Don Pyke said Selwood was nearing a comeback.

"Scott's now back. You can see he's out training and running," Pyke said. "I think his program is now graduated to put him in a position to maybe play later in the NAB Cup, assuming all goes well."

The Eagles beat the Indigenous All-Stars last Friday and will attempt to build momentum against Carlton at Bendigo Bank Stadium from 4.10pm.

The below-strength Blues will be without captain Marc Murphy, dual Brownlow medallist Chris Judd and key players Matthew Kreuzer, Michael Jamison, Bryce Gibbs, Lachie Henderson and Dale Thomas.

Carlton coach Mick Malthouse will also remain in Melbourne to support his wife, who is having stomach surgery today. Coaching director Rob Wiley will take the reins.

Young Eagles Tom Lamb, Jackson Nelson and Malcolm Karpany will get their chance alongside new captain Shannon Hurn and Brownlow medallist Matt Priddis. With West Coast's round-one match against the Western Bulldogs not until April 4, Pyke said the club was focused on preparing for that match.

"Our preparation for round one is the most important thing," Pyke said.

"Winning is a habit, so ideally we'd like to win, but not at any cost. So we're mindful of our squad and managing our squad and our players as best we can to get us in the exact right spot we want for round one.

"We've got some young guys who have joined the club and we're really excited about them and their chances to have a bit of a look in the NAB Cup. It'll be good for us and the group."

West Coast fell one win short of making the finals last year, but failed to beat a team which finished in the eight.

Pyke said the players knew what it would take to improve this year.

"Some of the areas around our ball movement, our team defence or our contested possession - they are the areas we've worked on," he said.