Essendon coach Matthew Knights says key position player Michael Hurley could return for Friday night's AFL clash with West Coast, but Angus Monfries and Mark McVeigh remain in doubt.

Hurley, suspended by the club for the opening three rounds for an attack on a taxi driver, played in the VFL on Saturday and Knights said he impressed, although he was not yet guaranteed senior selection.

"He virtually played the whole four quarters and got through the game wonderfully well," Knights said.

"I think he was one of the better players with Bendigo, I only saw the first half live, so we'll consider him, but the forward line worked reasonably well (in Saturday night's win over Carlton), so that will be a Monday or a Tuesday decision."

But Knights said Angus Monfries (quad strain) was unlikely to play against the Eagles, while it was uncertain whether Mark McVeigh (blood infection) would be ready to return, after both missed the win over the Blues.

"Both are probably unknowns at this stage, I would have though Angus would be unlikely, considering it's a strain, I would have thought he may miss another one.

"Mark, due to spending a lot of time in hospital, we'll just see how he trains this week.

"It's really unknown with that one because his immunity's obviously been knocked around a fair bit."

Knights expected to face a fired-up Eagles squad at Subiaco, with the WA opening their season with three defeats.

"They're going to be nice and prickly and it gives us a great opportunity to go interstate and really have a crack at West Coast and really go with the same attitude we played with (against Carlton)," he said.

"If we do that we'll give ourselves a decent chance, but we have to back it up, because last week (we were) average, this week high intensity, high effort, they really teamed well together, so we've got to take that to Western Australia."

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