HARLEY Bennell has received fresh treatment on his troublesome calves but remains on track to make his long-awaited return in the early rounds of the season, according to Fremantle coach Ross Lyon.

Bennell was spotted at Fremantle Hospital on Tuesday and Lyon confirmed to Channel Seven that the 24-year-old star had pulled up sore from a heavier training workload.

The ex-Gold Coast midfielder has been building his running in recent weeks and recently started completing high-end sprints. 

Full injury list ahead of round two

"He has been training really intensely, doing really heavy volumes and he had delayed soreness so we had it scanned," Lyon said.

"You can just go in and give it some treatment. I don't know exactly what they do, but under ultrasound they can give it an injection and (it) just frees it up. 

"It certainly won't delay him at all on his potential return, so he'll just be backed off for a day or so but he'll run again later this week and get moving again.

"It's getting to the exciting stage for Harley."

Lyon declared Bennell's soreness was "certainly no big setback". The Dockers are aiming for him to return before the halfway point of the campaign.

Bennell was sidelined for all of last season due to right calf problems and was sent to Germany for specialist treatment in December after hurting his "good" left calf at training.

Lyon has previously confirmed that the former Sun's much-anticipated comeback will be via Peel Thunder in the WAFL, with Bennell set to play a similar role to Hawthorn superstar Cyril Rioli in attack and pinch-hitting in midfield.

Meanwhile, goalsneak Hayden Ballantyne is scheduled to start running later this week as he builds his way back from hamstring tendon surgery. 

The 29-year-old, who is in the final year of his contract, is still about 7-9 weeks away from a playing comeback.