Hawthorn recruit Jaeger O'Meara may not return to senior football in 2017 after his latest injury setback.
The Hawks have confirmed O'Meara has sustained a new injury to his patella tendon, this time suffering from "bone stress" in his knee.
Hawthorn elite performance manager Andrew Russell confirmed the news on Tuesday afternoon, and also suggested he was close to returning to the field before the latest setback arose.
"It's a new injury, different to what he had before," Russell said.
"We want him back at full fitness, which he’s not. We got him to 90 to 95 per cent then new pain surfaced."
The 23-year-old missed the entire 2015 and 2016 seasons through injury, and has only featured four times for Hawthorn so far this year.
Russell said O'Meara was a chance to return before season's end, although it's not a guarantee given his injury history.
"We are really confident it will because he had four months of pain free, high-quality training in the pre-season. He felt 100 per cent and he moved as well as he ever has before.
"He took confidence out of that and we took confidence out of that, and as soon as this issue settles down we’ll get him out there and going again, and at this stage we’ll be preparing him to play later in the season.”
Hawthorn have also confirmed veteran defender Josh Gibson will miss the next four weeks after suffering an adductor strain in their round 12 loss to Gold Coast before the bye.
