Hawthorn veteran Karl Amon will undergo minor knee surgery this week which could rule him out of the remainder of the home and away season.
Amon returned to the senior side on Saturday against Carlton after he missed the loss to Melbourne the week prior.
“Karl is expected to undergo a minor clean up procedure on his knee this week," Hawks Executive General Manager of Football Rob McCartney said.
“This has been in consideration for a number of weeks. While Karl has had some intermittent pain throughout the season, there was no further risk in him playing games.
“We expect Karl to be available for selection before finals.”
Amon has been battling knee soreness throughout the year, and the club has now made the call to rectify the issue before an all-out finals assault in September.
The Hawks provided context on the issue early last week.
"Karl manages an issue which is a longer-term issue, and we've been on top of it for most of the year and the last couple of years," high-performance manager Peter Burge said.
"It just was more irritated out of the game last week (GWS match), and midway through the week, it became apparent that we were probably going to need to take a week, just let things settle and get some running into him over the weekend."
Amon is set to miss clashes against Richmond, Essendon, North Melbourne and Brisbane, with the club hopeful he'll return against Collingwood (Round 23) or West Coast (Round 24).
Small forward star Nick Watson is set to return from a hamstring injury, while Josh Battle will be a test to return against the Tigers with an appendix issue.
Sam Butler (leg) and Ned Reeves (knee) are also pushing to return this week.
