After undergoing surgery on his left hamstring, Hayden Ballantyne has returned to the club in good spirits, according to high performance manager Jason Weber.

Ballantyne is expected to miss eight to 10 weeks after suffering the injury during Fremantle’s final JLT Community Series game against Carlton. 

Weber confirmed that the 141-game player has commenced his rehabilitation process after last week’s surgery.

“Hayden’s still quite sore, obviously,” Weber said.

“He’s up and about around the club and walking quite well.

“He will be a number of weeks yet, but he’s in good spirits and certainly getting to work straight way.”

Webber gave an update on Harley Bennell, who continues to progress in his rehabilitation from a calf injury.

“Harley’s doing a really good job at the moment,” Weber said.

“He’s back to basically one-on-one football.

“He’s working really hard and we’re hoping to get him back into football team training in the next couple of weeks.” 

Webber added that Michael Apeness has commenced working in the gym after injuring his knee playing for Peel in the WAFL pre-season.

“Michael’s made a good comeback,” Weber said.

“He had quite a solid hit in the posterior cruciate ligament in his knee while jumping in the ruck two weeks ago, so that’s slowed him down a bit from his great work over the summer. 

“He’s probably about six to seven weeks away, but we got him working in the gym today and, hopefully, he’ll be back to running in the next week or so.”

New draftee Luke Ryan missed both the JLT Series and WAFL pre-seasons with an ankle injury, but Weber expects to see the 20-year-old starting for Peel soon.

“I’d anticipate Luke (to play WAFL) next week,” Weber said.

“Unfortunately Luke had a high ankle sprain which was then compounded by a pretty solid bout of tonsillitis, so he’s just slowed down a little bit.

“We look forward to seeing him on the field next week.”