LUCKLESS Fremantle defender Alex Pearce will take another positive step in his return to football when he joins in the Dockers' pre-season training on Monday.

Pearce has had several setbacks since suffering a badly broken leg against Richmond in round nine, 2016.

The 22-year-old re-broke the same leg at pre-season training in January this year and had two infections around where the metal plate was removed, which forced him to miss the entire season.

Dockers' high-performance manager Jason Weber said Pearce had been working hard during the off-season break.

"Alex is up and running; he's had a strong running program over the off-season period," Weber said.

"We'll make an assessment on how he is progressing and build him into football from there.

"There will be modifications, obviously. Alex had some challenges, but we expect him to get to a standard that will see him play AFL football."

Pearce, regarded as the club's long-term centre half-back, has played 21 games for the Dockers since being taken with the 37th overall pick in the 2013 NAB AFL Draft.

Ed Langdon, Connor Blakely, Brady Grey, Cam McCarthy, Ethan Hughes, Michael Apeness and Darcy Tucker will join Pearce on Monday.

The club's first-to-fourth year players who played in the WAFL finals will start their pre-season training on November 13, while the five year-plus players resume on November 20.