Hawthorn forward Mitch Lewis is set to miss at least the first month of the 2023 season due to a knee injury.
Lewis suffered a sprain of his anterior cruciate ligament in January, with the 24-year-old sidelined since but avoiding surgery for the injury.
Speaking to AFL.com.au coach Sam Mitchell said it remains unclear when Lewis will be available in 2023, but confirmed he would miss at least the first month of the season.
"He's up and down, I would say. He's running a bit already but then he's had a little bit of swelling in it so then he has to back off," Mitchell told AFL.com.au.
"If things go really well, I think potentially he'll be available for round four or five as an absolute best case scenario. There's nothing that will speed it up. And any setbacks that he has, which is likely, will knock him back a week or two weeks or a month or two months.
"At this stage he just goes day by day and tries to get as much improvement as he can and we're not going to rush him. He's an important player and if you get a knee wrong then it's 12 months out of the game so we'd like to avoid that."
Lewis enjoyed a breakout campaign in 2022, booting 37 goals from 15 games to spearhead the Hawks' attack.
The young forward is regarded as one of the club's emerging leaders, with Mitchell praising his capacity to stay involved while recovering from the injury.
"What's been impressive about him is his full commitment – he's out on the track, he's talking to the coaches, he's still doing tape, he's coaching some of the other key-position forwards and he's been really committed to what we're about still," Mitchell said.
"We've only got one Mitch Lewis, so we're not going to replace Mitch Lewis, we just have to try to find a different way that fits within our sustainable system. You don't want to do something that you're just going to have to throw out in 10 weeks' time, you want to have something that you think can be a way forward," he said.
"It's going to create an opportunity, whether that's for Fergus Greene or Emerson Jeka who has gone back into the front half, or Jai Serong, who has had a really good summer. He rolled his ankle last week and had a bit of a setback but there's going to be opportunities for those guys that perhaps weren't going to be there. You have to look at the positive as well."
Hawthorn faces Geelong next Thursday in match simulation at GMHBA Stadium before taking on Collingwood on Thursday March 2 in Tasmania in its final practice game before Round 1.
