GOOD AND BAD NEWS ON NELSON INJURY FRONT

WEST Perth midfielder Shane Nelson escaped a broken jaw but has come out with several facial fractures from Saturday's loss to Subiaco at Kingsway Reserve with coach Bill Monaghan remaining confident both he and Matt Guadagnin are a chance to play in Round 23.

The Falcons went down to the Lions by 52 points on Saturday with the day made worse at Kingsway Reserve when Nelson suffered some serious facial injuries during the last quarter in a collision with Subiaco forward Liam Ryan.

There were initial fears that Nelson's jaw was broken and while that is not the case, the news is only slightly better with the prolific ball winner suffering a broken nose, fractured cheekbone and damage to his eye socket.

He had surgery on Sunday morning and is no chance of playing for West Perth this Saturday against Claremont at HBF Arena but Monaghan hasn’t given up hope of Nelson playing in the final round of the season also at Joondalup against wooden spooners Swan Districts.

After missing the opening five games of the season, Nelson had a remarkable 13 games for the Falcons with the 2013 premiership player and dual Breckler Medallist averaging over 35 possessions a game.

Given that, Monaghan is hoping he returns either in that final round or during the finals but it is simply a wait and see game to see how his recovery goes.

"I guess there's good news and bad news. The good news is that there was no broken jaw, which was probably going to be the injury that would have kept him out for the longest period," Monaghan said.

"Any break and the significant trauma of a broken nose, broken cheekbone and some damage around the eye socket isn’t great news. But he was operated on Sunday morning and he's a bit sore and sorry at the moment, especially because all his modelling gigs have been pushed back a few weeks.

"We are really hopeful that providing he is comfortable with it and the medical people say it's OK that he could play in the last round of the season or the first week of the finals. But if he can't then so be it, we have to move on and select someone else."

Meanwhile, veteran West Perth midfielder Matt Guadagnin might have been a natural replacement for Nelson but a tight hamstring stopped him from playing his second reserves game back from his knee reconstruction on Saturday.

The 191-game premiership on-baller looked good with 14 possessions in his return against Perth before feeling some tightness in his hamstring that has delayed his potential league return at least another week.

He will now play in the reserves again this Saturday against Claremont and try to impress sufficiently enough to make a case for his league return in Round 23 against Swan Districts.

"That's the plan with Guady, but as we've said all along if he plays at all this year it's a bonus. He has had a couple of little hiccups along the way but he is doing everything he can to get himself right," Monaghan said.

"If he can and he can play some decent footy, then we think that will be terrific for our group. If he can't, then we will just keep backing in the people who have been playing for us all year.