MELBOURNEforward Jesse Hogan remains at least eight weeks away from returning tofootball.

He suffered aback injury in the NAB Challenge series when Melbourne played Geelong in AliceSprings and has not played since.

Because of thenature of his injury, the club was initially reluctant to put a date on whenHogan would return.

Unfortunatelyfor the player and club it is taking longer than hoped, as Hogan has notresponded to the treatment and they are now taking a more conservativeapproach.

The club triedmore than once during the rehab to give the youngster a week's rest before heresumed running but it did not seem to help, as the symptoms returned

As a result, onthe advice of specialists, a different approach is now being taken with theclub reluctant to increase his training loads until he has an extended periodwithout pain or symptoms.

"He hasn'trun for a week now. We're not going to push him now. We'll probably leave itfor another week or so before he runs again, which obviously means it's goingto be a lot longer than initially thought," Roos said.

He said that itwould be two or three weeks before Hogan resumed running and another five orsix week delay after that.

"It wasjust one of those injuries. We were going to see how it reacted to activity andit hasn't reacted that well," Roos said.

Hogan remainscontracted to the Demons until the end of 2015 and he has resisted overtures todate to extend his contract beyond that time. He has said he is happy atMelbourne but wants to play senior footy before he even thinks about enteringsuch negotiations.

Roos said Hogan– who is yet to play a senior game – was a long-term player for Melbourne,which was why they were treating him with caution.

The club is alsoconsidering placing him on the long-term injury list.