Fremantle midfielder Des Headland had knee surgery today and has set himself the target of round 15 to return to AFL action.
It had been feared Headland would miss the entire season, after bone bruising to a knee was complicated by the discovery of a bi-partite patella, a condition which effectively means he has developed two knee caps.
Speaking to the club website before entering hospital today, Headland said he was targeting a return to the WAFL at the end of June - with a possible AFL comeback against reigning premiers Geelong on July 12 if his recovery goes well.
"It depends who you talk to, the physio says eight to ten (weeks), but if you speak to the doc he says six to eight," Headland said.
"So I will take the middle of it, take eight weeks and hopefully play in the WAFL in the next AFL bye week to get some match fitness.
"And then if I am fit enough, round 15.
"I will get back and get six or seven games in and who knows, if the boys win a few games in a row we could be in with a chance of the finals."
Headland said he had been told by medical experts that the extra bone on the side of the kneecap had developed since childhood.
"I was not born with it but I grew it, about 11 or 12 I started getting a bit of knee soreness, had a few scans as a kid and was told it was a bit of floating bone," Headland said.
"That floating bone turned into another knee cap, and I was only told four weeks ago when I knocked it.
"They are going to scrape that off, fix that up and make my knee look normal."
The Dockers take on the unbeaten Western Bulldogs on Sunday, and assistant coach Chris Scott said today despite a 1-6 start, there was still genuine belief a top-eight spot was possible.
"We are not at the stage where we are putting lines through players," Scott said.
"When the season is over and you have no chance of making finals your aspirations change, but we are certainly nowhere near that period yet."
