WEST Coast midfielder Daniel Kerr is certain he is not battling osteitis pubis as he prepares to seek specialist treatment on his mystery injury.

Kerr will fly to Adelaide on Friday to meet with groin specialist Steve Saunders, but he said the lower abdominal pain he was enduring in matches was nothing like the osteitis pubis he suffered in high school.

He said the trip to see Dr Saunders should reveal if his injury will worsen if he continues to play or if he can push through to the end of the season.  

He said there was no chance of him needing surgery.

"It's not something that I can't play [with], so I could play this weekend," Kerr told Perth radio station 6PR. "The worry is if you do keep playing, the damage that you are doing.

"But if this guy says, 'It's an abdominal strain', or if this guy says, 'You need to go and do some work on your glutes and do some pilates type stuff and you'll be right in one or two weeks', then I'll be back this year.

"I definitely feel like it is not the same pain I had in 1999 when I was a schoolboy where I had pretty severe osteitis pubis, I don't think it's that."

Kerr, 26, has not played since round 13, but said if he got approval he wanted to play against Fremantle in the round 17 western derby.

With West Coast sitting 12th on the AFL ladder with just four wins, Kerr said he would not play on if it meant jeopardising his 2010 pre-season.

"I didn’t do a pre-season last year because of knee surgery and it does affect you, especially when you're tagged and don’t have that base running ability," he said.

"I won’t be putting my pre-season in danger and I don't think the club or Woosh (coach John Worsfold) wants me to put my pre-season in danger.

"In saying that, there is a high possibility that this is an abdominal thing and it may not even be related to my groins."

Dean Cox will also fly to Adelaide to meet with Dr Saunders, and Kerr said his All-Australian teammate was battling more pain than him.

Cox returned after a two-week layoff to face St Kilda in round 15, but spent the entire last quarter on the bench with a groin injury.

West Coast has had a horror run with groin injuries in recent seasons, with Sam Butler, Chris Masten, Mark LeCras, Brad Ebert, Chad Fletcher, Beau Waters and Luke Shuey all struck down.

Dr Saunders had helped West Coast players with groin injuries in the past. He has also treated players from Adelaide, Fremantle, Carlton, Melbourne and the Brisbane Lions.

"He's got a reputation, he's renowned (and) he's done some good work," Worsfold said.

"He's actually assessed some of our players in the past, both in Adelaide and he's been to Perth before to look at some of the players.

"He's had good results with some of his programs treating and preventing these types of injuries."