West Coast coach John Worsfold has no doubt star AFL midfielder Daniel Kerr will return to his electrifying best once he recovers from a serious hamstring injury.

And Worsfold predicts 26-year-old Kerr has at least three more years left at the elite level.

Kerr has been ruled out for the next three months after undergoing surgery to repair a torn right hamstring sustained in last Friday's win over Essendon.

Kerr has struggled to make a consistent impact since winning All-Australian selection in 2007, with injuries and suspension restricting him to just 26 games since receiving that honour.

Kerr even apologised to fans earlier this week for failing to live up to expectations over the past three seasons.

But Worsfold is confident Kerr will regain his title as an elite midfielder of the competition once he returns to full fitness.

"He's still only very young so this will give him time, his body will be in better shape when he comes back and I think that means we can expect to get at least another three good years of football out of Daniel," Worsfold said.

"These hamstring injuries have been around for a long time and players have generally bounced back strongly from them.

"At his age it will repair well and he'll be fresh, ready to go.

"It's obviously a big blow for him because there's no doubt he was on the way back (to his best after last year's groin injury).

"He'd obviously had a lot of close attention in the first few rounds without showing any of the signs of being frustrated by it.

"He was dealing with it really well, he was playing a good role for us and he would have got back to his best football this year."

Kerr is likely to take on a midfield mentoring role at the club while he recovers from the hamstring injury, tutoring the likes of Chris Masten, Brad Ebert, Luke Shuey, Tom Swift and Pat McGinnity.

"He's actually been doing some work with some of the young midfielders already, sitting down and watching their games ... so that will continue," Worsfold said.

"Whether we've got a role for him on match day I'll talk to him about that and we'll talk to (football operations manager) Neale Daniher."

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