West Coast CEO Trevor Nisbett insists the club will remain patient with defender Brad Sheppard.
The 2020 All-Australian is suffering from concussion symptoms sustained during the 2021 season which have put his football future in doubt.
Nisbett says the 30-year-old will continue to seek advice from medical specialists while working with the club to understand where he is at and what is ahead.
“With Bradley it’s taking a bit of time with his concussion diagnosis,” he said on Sportsday WA.
“He’s been getting all the testing and everything he needs done.
“We’ll continue to monitor Brad as the doctors will. I’ll be talking to Brad on a consistent basis to see where it’s falling.”
There have been some suggestions that Sheppard could be forced into early retirement as was the case for his Eagles teammate Dan Venables.
Nisbett insists the situations of the two players are different, but does concede that Sheppard has a significant decision in front of him.
“It’s not like Dan’s. Dan’s is a traumatic brain injury in a collision which obviously is different to someone who suffers for two, three or four concussions. They’re different scenarios,” he added.
“Certainly from Bradley’s point of view, as a football club we’re not going to take risks with any of our players’ health, but we want to give Bradley as much time as possible to make the call that he believes is right.
“He’s got a lot of footy left ahead of him if he wants to keep playing. It’s going to end up a health decision and a decision that only Bradley can make.
“We’ll just have to give him as much time as we can.”
Sheppard has the ability to undergo some certain activities but it is unknown at this point in time if he will be ready to join the rest of the squad for pre-season training next week.
“It’s an interesting one because he can do some activity,” Nisbett said further.
“But if there are symptoms that come back he’s got to go back to square one to just rest.
“We’ll talk to Brad in the next couple of days and find out whether he’s ready to commence training next week.
“If he’s not ready, he certainly won’t be commencing training with the rest of the guys next Monday.”
Another Eagle under an injury cloud is midfielder Jack Redden who is battling a shoulder issue.
Nisbett says the 30-year-old will be restricted early in pre-season before making a full recovery early next year.
“Jack had the issue since late in the season and he played with it,” the CEO said of the 2018 premiership player.
“He thought it was going to settle down, unfortunately it didn’t. We expect him to be late pre-season, probably February, back in almost full training.
“He’ll get through that, he’ll get through his rehab and we’re very confident with him.”