West Coast hard man Liam Baker looms as the midfield replacement for Harley Reid amid fears the young gun’s season could be over.

It is understood Reid suffered a syndesmosis injury in the final minutes of the Eagles’ western derby defeat to Fremantle on Saturday and with just four games remaining, there is a chance he doesn’t play again this season.

The injury is another significant blow to West Coast’s on-ball brigade, which is already missing Elliot Yeo, while injury forced Dom Sheed into retirement and Tim Kelly has battled for form. Jack Graham still has one game to serve on his ban for using a homophobic slur earlier this month.

Baker — who was recruited from Richmond to play as a utility — has been shifted to half-forward in recent weeks. He was used in a minding role on Port Adelaide captain Connor Rozee when they met a fortnight ago and did a similar job on the Dockers’ Jordan Clark early in the derby.

But with his side battling to supply its forward line, Baker was shifted up around the ball in the final term on Saturday.

He attended 34 per cent of centre bounces for the match, which is his second-highest rate since round five.

“I moved around to half-forward a few weeks ago, but it’s tough when there’s not much supply at times,” Baker told The West Australian.

“Going into the midfield, I think we were getting smashed at clearance, so maybe that’s why the move was. I’ll do whatever, whatever the team needs.”

Kelly’s return to form in the derby was timely towards the end of a season where he has twice been dropped to the WAFL.

The veteran had 26 disposals and eight clearances along with two goals in the defeat.

“It’s good having TK around. He has been a star for this footy club for five years now and he has been up and down throughout the year, but so have I, so has everyone, so has the club,” Baker said.

“It’s good seeing him in there because we need a player like Tim in there.”

Kelly is contracted for two more years at the Eagles and Baker said he still has plenty to contribute.

“We back in TK and like I said, everyone has been down on form at times this year. We look forward to the rest of the year and driving into next year what TK can do,” he said.