Fremantle Senior Coach Justin Longmuir has said dual Brownlow Medallist Nat Fyfe will be unlikely to play any level of football this weekend.

Speaking at his Thursday morning media conference, Longmuir said Fyfe had pulled up sore following his first full match for Peel at the weekend.

“He’s close to being AFL-ready, but unfortunately he’s just pulled up a little bit sore this week in that knee,” Longmuir said.

“At this stage, I don’t think we will see him at any level (this weekend).

“We know it’s (the soreness) not significant, but he may need a week off.

“We expected this could happen to some degree when we lifted his loads.

“He played his first full game on the weekend, and it’s probably the first time he’s really unleashed his strength, run, and all those types of things and let himself go, and he’s just pulled up a little bit sore."

In squad selection news, Longmuir ruled out Sean Darcy for an AFL return, stating the ruckman would play for Peel, with match minutes being a vital step for Darcy before making his full AFL return.

Longmuir although did not rule out midfielder Hayden Young, saying his selection in the squad for Round 4 was dependent on how Young progressed in main training today.

“Youngy we will see how he goes through training, and we will have a discussion this afternoon," Longmuir said.

“We’ve got no doubt he could probably play AFL, but we need to think a bit longer-term with this. We want to set him up for the best result for us (for the rest of the season).”

“Sean (Darcy) is going to play WAFL. He won’t train today on the basis that he did a bit of extra work earlier in the week.

“It’s a vital step for him with his fitness, strength and ruck craft to be able to play at that level first before we put him on the big stage.

“It will be a good stepping stone for him."

Speaking on the Bulldogs, Longmuir said last year’s 67-point loss in Round 14 remained fresh in the playing group’s mind.

“I don’t think I need to message the players on what the Bulldogs can do to us because they gave us a lesson last year,” Longmuir said.

“When we came with the right mentality and were up for the contest earlier in the season (Round 7), we played well against them here, but we let our guard down (in Round 14) last year, so that is fresh on our minds.

“We won’t be walking into this game thinking they’ve got some injuries, and we will get over them.

“We will need to be at our best, and we will need to improve on what we did last week, and that’s been the message."

Fremantle’s extended squad for Round 4 will be released at 3.20pm WST later today, with the final team of 23 confirmed on Friday at 2.00pm at fremantlefc.com.au.