Fremantle Co-vice-Captain Andrew Brayshaw has expressed his excitement to see returning defender Brandon Walker play his first match minutes since injuring his knee last season.

Brayshaw made note of the body of work Walker has undergone to get back to match minutes.

“I think they mentioned that he had done 260 kilometres of running before he was able to come back and train again,” Brayshaw said.

“To be able to come out and seamlessly enter back into the side… he definitely hasn’t lost it, so it’s going to be really exciting to have him back.”

Walker tore his Patella Tendon in round 18 against Collingwood last year, resulting in the defender missing the remainder of the season, before returning today on restricted match minutes. 

Fremantle will play West Coast on Saturday 24 February in the Club’s first hit-out against an opposition list, with Brayshaw expressing the side’s eagerness to face off against some AFL competition. 

“It’s been a really tough pre-season, JL (Justin Longmuir) touched on it before, we are really excited to play real opposition,” the midfielder said.

“We were pretty heated out there today and have been getting on each other’s nerves, so it will be good to channel that frustration at times into opposition and be able to really tackle strong and work hard against real opposition.