MELBOURNE’S Paul Johnson, one of the club's most improved players this season, is set to have surgery on his hip, and it's still to be determined if he will play against West Coast at the MCG on Saturday.

Demons football operations manager Ross Monaghan said the club would finalise how it would treat Johnson's injury towards the end of the week.

"He'll have surgery on his hip at some stage soon, but we're waiting on final confirmation for when that's going to be," Monaghan told melbournfc.com.au.

"Most likely, it will be early next week, so whether he plays or not this week, we'll have to make that decision later."

Fellow ruckman Mark Jamar, who missed last Friday night's miserable loss against Geelong, will be right to play this round, after he was a late withdrawal, due to a virus.

"He had a bug in his system that stopped him playing on Friday, but if the game had have been on Sunday, he probably would have played, so he should be fine [this round]," Monaghan said.

He also said forward Brad Miller should be back this week, as could defender Daniel Bell, while young-gun Colin Garland was also a possibility, the trio are all sidelined with hamstring injuries.

Livewire midfielder/forward Aaron Davey (foot) is also a chance to return.

"We're still going to assess him throughout the week to see where he's up to," Monaghan said.

In the VFL, Monaghan said rookie-listed tall Jake Spencer relished the opportunity to play as Sandringham's No.1 ruckman against Geelong, while key forward Michael Newton and veteran Adem Yze impressed with two goals each. 

"We were really pleased with Jake's work-rate and Michael did well to kick two goals on a difficult day and Adem continued to play well and won plenty of the ball," Monaghan said.

Emerging Demon Ricky Petterd also "continued to develop" on the weekend, although defender/midfielder Jace Bode did not play out the match after he was concussed.

"He was ko'd in the first 10 minutes of the first quarter and he struggled through until half-time and he didn't play the second half," Monaghan said.

Young-gun Jack Grimes also made his VFL debut in the seniors, after battling injury in his first year at Melbourne.

"He acquitted himself really well and we were encouraged by the way he performed. He played on James Byrne, who won the Liston Trophy last year and he's a very, very good player, so it was a good initiation for Jack," Monaghan said.

Sandringham's 11-point loss to Geelong has now put the Zebras' finals prospects in jeopardy.