Bell suffers devastating blow on cusp of return

Luckless defender Jared Bell has re-torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee following a seemingly innocuous incident at training last Thursday.

Bell, who turned 21 on Saturday, has spent the past 11 months recovering from an ACL tear sustained back in round 15 last year and was set to return to playing in as little as four weeks.

Bell, who was leading the 2016 Butcher Medal count at the round 15 mark, will require a second knee reconstruction and Perth Football Operations Manager Dale Ballantyne said he had not yet decided between LARS and traditional surgery.

"He hasn't decided what he's going to do with it whether it's a LARS surgery or the same process so he'll have a couple of weeks with that one," Ballantyne said.

In a double blow for the Demons, scans have confirmed that young forward Sam Garstone will miss the remainder of 2017 after tearing his posterior cruciate ligament against Peel last weekend.

Scans also indicated that Garstone, who was enjoying a breakout season up forward, also partially tore his ACL but will not require a full reconstruction.

In some positive news for the Demons, a host of players are in line to make their returns over the next two weeks.

Devin McFarlane, Brant Colledge, Brent Latch, Lennon Marlin and Dan Horan are all expected to return this week against Swan Districts while Brent Edmonds (shoulder) will undergo a fitness test on Thursday night to try and prove his fitness.

Liam McKenna (knee) and Spencer White (shins) will both need another week to fully recover from their respective injuries.

See the full Demons injury list here

In recruitment news, East Fremantle utility Jake Schliecher has signed with the Demons on a two year term.

The 23-year-old played 17 league games for East Fremantle between 2015-17 and has been described by Ballantyne as a strongly built, athletic utility who finds the ball and makes good decisions with it.

Schliecher injured his groin playing for Carey Park on the weekend and is expected to be fit to play for the Demons in 1-2 weeks.