WEST Coast will be without vice-captain Beau Waters for Sunday's clash with Melbourne at Etihad Stadium, but coach John Worsfold is confident star ruckman Dean Cox will be available.

Waters, who was sidelined for three months earlier this season with an elbow injury, has played three games since returning in round 17, but he missed last Saturday's win over Richmond with a related complaint.

The 25-year-old has been held out of contact drills at training and Worsfold said he would miss this week's match in an effort to let his troublesome right elbow completely heal for the rest of the season.

"We're just making sure we rest it, we're not really testing it out at the moment," Worsfold said from Patersons Stadium on Wednesday. 

"He's training at the moment, but he's not doing any tackling or anything like that. Next week we'll put him into some more drills that'll test it a bit more.

"If it looks like it's come a long way but it might benefit from another week off, we may choose to do that. If it's come a long way and there's no value in having another week off, he'll probably play next week."

Waters endured three operations on his troublesome left elbow between 2008 and 2009 and he re-injured his right elbow, which was operated on in April this year, two weeks ago. 

Worsfold said the club was confident Waters would eventually move past the joint troubles that have restricted him to 34 games in the last four seasons.

"As we’ve seen with the elbow he had reconstructed a couple of years ago, he's having no issues with that," the coach said.
 
"We push the barrow with coming back from serious injuries, we get them out there playing an intense game way before most people would consider doing any activity like that. I'm sure it's just that we've tested him out early.
 
"Most players have a knee reconstruction and then get through the rest of their career without any more issues. We're confident that that'll be the case."

Cox, who has been in doubt for the Melbourne match after sustaining a knock to his hip against the Tigers and playing out the game as a deep forward, has been rested from training so far this week.

Worsfold said the star ruckman would have a light jog on Wednesday and train on Thursday, with the club confident he will play against the Demons.

"If 'Coxy' is fit and right to play, he wants to play and he's still pretty important to us to keep him out there," Worsfold said.

Josh Kennedy, who has missed two matches with an eye injury, trained on Monday and is set to return, with key defender Eric Mackenzie also in line for selection after missing one match with hamstring tightness.

"If we're absolutely confident he's 100 per cent again we'd seriously look at him coming straight back in," Worsfold said of Mackenzie, who was replaced against the Tigers by Mitch Brown.
 
"Mitch Brown did well and all the backs have been holding up pretty well. It's a good position for us to work out what sort of balance we want back there."

Nathan Schmook covers West Coast news for afl.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_NSchmook