ELITE performance manager Dave Misson says Mitch Clark’s upcoming surgery was the most realistic option to take at this stage of his career and the season.

Misson said the procedure to remove a screw from his right foot was always going to happen, although the club initially preferred it to be at the end of the season.

“What we found was that the screw that was put in at Christmas time to hold the Lisfranc joint together was putting a bit of pressure on his toes. He had a little bit of bone stress on his toes, and we felt that the best course of action would be to take the screw out,” he told melbournefc.com.au.

“The two surgical opinions that we’ve had have both been very confident that the Lisfranc joint has repaired really well and is very stable. So it’s just a matter of rehabbing him from this procedure tomorrow, and getting him back to playing some footy towards the end of the year.

“The good thing will be that he’s going to have a trouble free pre-season without having any surgery at the end of the year.

“It’s disappointing for the next six to eight weeks, but we think it’s the right thing to do, and Mitch is pretty confident that he’s made the right decision there - we’ll just rehab him and try and get him back for the back half of the year.”

Misson said key recruit Chris Dawes, plus defenders Lynden Dunn, Joel Macdonald and Tom Gillies had come through well, after returning from injury via Casey last weekend.

“Those four guys played pretty solid minutes in the VFL last week, and they pulled up well,” he said.

“There is a bit of general soreness, but they’ll train and play this week.”

Misson added that versatile tall James Sellar would be right this week, after missing through illness.

“He got some really bad gastro on the Friday night - we had a lot of guys available for the VFL, so we felt we didn’t need to push him in when he was crook, but he’ll definitely play this week,” he said.

Misson said rookie Mitch Clisby’s shin soreness had “improved a lot” since missing last weekend for Casey and young gun Jesse Hogan was also recovering from a corked thigh.

“It was a pretty solid cork, just above his knee,” Misson said about Hogan.  

“We sacked him [from the match] after a quarter and a bit, and he’s pulled up OK. He’s crook today (Tuesday) and didn’t train, but he’ll probably do a little bit this week.”