Jack Darling continues to have the support of his West Coast teammates, even though Dom Sheed concedes it's "hard" to back the AFL forward's vaccination stance.
Darling's playing future is unclear and he is training away from the Eagles after he failed to meet a January 21 league deadline to have a first vaccine dose.
There are still hopes he will play again for the Eagles, but he is the highest-profile AFL player so far to be reluctant about having the COVID-19 jabs.
Compounding the issue for the Eagles, fellow key forward Oscar Allen is out of action because of stress-related foot injury.
At a media conference on Tuesday, Sheed was asked several times about Darling and teammates' thoughts on his vaccine stance.
"It's his decision, right? Everyone has a decision, whether they want to get the vaccine," Sheed said.
"He's decided not to, so I don't think we can be disappointed in that.
"We support him and what he wants to do ... it's hard to support his decision, but we support him as an individual."
In a message to Eagles fans on Tuesday, chief executive Trevor Nisbett said they have no update about the issue.
"As I'm sure you'll appreciate, it's a private and sensitive situation, and there's nothing I can comment on beyond what the club has already stated publicly. We will share any updates when we can," Nisbett said.
Sheed said the sooner they know about Darling's playing future, the better.
"It would be nice to have some clarity, but ... all we can focus on is what we can do as a team," he said.
"What's going on is a bit bigger than the players at the moment.
"We just have to roll with the punches at the moment and let the club deal with that.
"Every team in the competition would struggle to replace a Jack Darling. We'd love to have him, unfortunately that's not the case."
With Darling and now Allen out of action, West Coast have trialled Tom Barrass in attack during the pre-season.
"How much is it disrupting us? I wouldn't say too much on the field at the moment," he said.
"We have players to replace Jack, but (it) is very difficult."
Sheed had shoulder surgery at the end of last season and expects to be ready for round one.
