RAZOR BACK, JONES A CHANCE, THREE STARS RULED OUT

RAY Bartholomew is set to make his return for West Perth this Saturday against East Fremantle at Arena Joondalup with Jordan Jones in doubt while Matt Guadagnin, Chris Keunen and Andrew Krakouer have again been ruled out.

Premiership player and 160-game veteran Bartholomew will make his return from a fractured cheekbone suffered in the Round 8 win over Peel Thunder while Jones is battling a medial ligament injury suffered in last week's win over Claremont at the Showground.

Meanwhile, ruckman Keunen will miss his second straight week with an eye injury, veteran premiership midfielder Guadagnin is out for his second straight game with a corked thigh and Krakouer will again miss with a knee problem.

Bartholomew copped a heavy knock to his face early in the Round 8 clash against Peel and played out the rest of the match despite fractures to his cheekbone and eye socket, but has since had surgery to insert plates and missed the games against Subiaco, East Perth and Claremont.

However, the 29-year-old is now right to return this Saturday against East Fremantle albeit with a helmet on his head.

"Ray got clearance last week from the doctor that this week is the way to go. He will wear a helmet for at least a couple of weeks just in case he does happen to get a knock on there so the blow that he will get is minimised," coach Bill Monaghan said.

"It's plated so in theory it is stronger than if he didn’t have the plate there. It's more that the bone hasn’t healed underneath the plate yet so another knock will disturb that and disrupt the natural healing process, but with the plate on there he is right to go.

"He has trained really well the last couple of weeks and he has recovered well. He is such a hard worker on and off the field that we expect him to be back and firing on all cylinders this week."

is also unsure about his star utility Jones in regards to his availability for the clash with the Sharks on Saturday, but is hopeful he will get up.

"Jordy got a slight tweak of his medial that is not dissimilar to what Michael Johnson did. From talking to our doctors and physios, the general feel is that if they can strap you up and get you back out there, generally it's right at the minor end and it's touch and go for the following week," he said.

"But as Fremantle saw with Michael Johnson, if you can't go back out then it's possibly up to a month off. We are probably looking at a Grade 1 strain of the medial for Jordy which means he is going to be touch and go for this week.

"He will have to get through a fitness test on Thursday night. While he was on reduced capacity, given that he played the game out and was still serviceable we are hopeful that he will play."

Keunen will again miss the game following the bruised retina he suffered in the WA Day derby against East Perth, but Monaghan is confident he might play in the Foxtel Cup clash with Western Storm on Tuesday June 24 or at least the next WAFL match in Round 13 against South Fremantle.

"Chris is purely being guided by the medicos at the moment and he is on no play this week. It is a two-week recovery just to let the bruising and bleeding go down in that eye," Monaghan said.

"It's a potentially major injury if you push it so it is all about not getting his blood pressure up and things like that to cause any more bleeding.

"The doctors are really confident that with another week off he will be ready to go and we will strongly consider playing him in the Foxtel Cup given he has had two weeks off, and that it's a shortened game. We are not certain we will do that, but we will look at it and Sev (Seva Martin) might need a bit of a rest after this week as well."

Guadagnin has also been ruled out for this Saturday with the badly corked thigh he copped against East Perth but played out the rest of the game with. Monaghan sees him as being on a similar time frame to Keunen.

"Matt won't play this week either. With that cork, the fact that he did it so early and kept playing was not what you need to do to help recover quickly," he said.

"You need to stop the bleeding quickly so it bled significantly more than it needed to, but we needed him out there on the ground against East Perth. It means that he has struggled to get over it.

"We might look at playing him in the Foxtel Cup or leave him for the South game after that, but that will be guided by how he trains. He trained Tuesday night in terms of some running and kicking, but he didn’t join in the main training."

However, Krakouer's immediate future remains unclear as he continues to battle a nagging knee complaint.

"That is an on-going issue that we haven’t been able to get to the bottom of yet, and we are a little unsure of when he will be available," Monaghan said.

"It is what it is on that one. I don’t like saying that, but he isn’t available for selection this week. That is the simple answer."