WESTERN Bulldogs veteran Scott West believes he is on track to return to football later this season with his recovery from knee bone bruising progressing well.
West, 33, is optimistic he is finally overcoming the ailment that has kept him to just four games this year after suffering a slight setback two weeks ago.
"I'll hopefully be playing in three weeks," he told Channel 7's Game Day on Sunday.
"I have another scan during this week. There's been a bit of bone stress. I'd been running for two and a half weeks and I was nearly back training with the group, and I just got a little bit more soreness back in the bone.
"I went and had a re-scan, and it just wasn't where I would have liked it to be, so we've taken a couple of weeks off just to make sure that coming into the last part of the year, I can get back and be 100 per cent right."
West had been close to resuming before the club delayed his return before the break, owing to continuing soreness in the troublesome knee.
However, the seven-time best and fairest winner said he is confident he will overcome the problem this time and rejoin his teammates for the business end of the season.
"It was just one of those things. I could have probably pushed through it, but it got to a stage where I just needed to get it right," he said.
"I just needed to become 100 per cent confident the soreness is going to be out of it."
West also said it has been pleasing to witness the improvements the Bulldogs have made this season in both their attacking options and defensive pressure from his spot on the sidelines.
" We've had a lot of rotations through the midfield, and those guys have also been able to go forward and kick goals," he said.
"With the number of guys that have kicked 20 goals or more, it's been really impressive. I think if you can get that spread, you can play good footy.
"When we do our review of the game, that's certainly one thing that we really do look at – the number of tackles, missed tackles, attempted tackles, all those defensive pressure skills that we were lacking in our game.
"Guys have put on more weight, and I think if you were to draw a line and see where we've become a lot better, it's probably that part of the game."