Sheppard was ruled out of the vital clash with Fremantle after he hurt himself at training on Saturday morning.
Carter, 19, is in his first year at West Coast after being drafted with pick No.59 in the 2012 NAB AFL Draft. The small defender has been in outstanding form for South Fremantle in the WAFL in recent weeks.
It is fitting that Carter makes his debut on the same weekend of Ashton Agar's heroics in the first Ashes Test at Trent Bridge.
Carter was a talented cricketer and travelled to India with an Australian Schoolboys cricket team alongside Agar and GWS midfielder Stephen Coniglio, in 2009.
Carter's tour was ruined when he contracted swine flu. He said it was an experience that taught him a lot about himself.
"We touched downed in India at the time of the swine flu. I went through the heat detectors and showed up red," Carter said back in May of this year.
Carter was quarantined at a facility in a farm paddock outside Delhi and was not allowed any visits from family or teammates.
"I was taken away for a couple of nights and my test results came back positive and so I stayed there for another three nights by myself," Carter said
"It was a pretty daunting experience that probably shaped my character a little bit.
"But I don't think it played any part in a decision between football and cricket."
Carter has played just 12 senior WAFL matches and was recruited as a development player at West Coast after performing strongly for WA at the NAB AFL Under-18 Championships last season.
He said in May that his dream was to play in the AFL but did not expect it to come this year.
"Coming into an AFL system, your dream is to play an AFL game but I'm still obviously very young and developing," Carter said.
"The time may not be now, but if the opportunity arises I think I will be ready."
That opportunity has come due a spate of injuries at West Coast and he will need to be ready, given he will have to deal with two of the in-form small forwards in the competition in Michael Walters and Hayden Ballantyne.
Carter said his role in the WAFL was preparing him for this opportunity.
"I'm playing a defensive role down at South Fremantle, playing on the players I would be playing on if I was playing AFL, the smaller, quicker forwards," Carter said.
