AN upbeat Jarryd Roughead is already looking forward to the second half of the season ahead of surgery on his injured PCL tomorrow.

The star forward was ruled out for the first half of 2016 just over a week ago.

Roughead had managed the injury through the latter stages of 2015, but for an unknown reason, the knee flared up after returning from the Christmas break.

“Tomorrow’s the surgery, and then we’ve got a bit of rehab, but I should be right to go for the second half of year,” Roughead told GoldFM on Monday morning

“A couple of years ago when I did an Achilles… it’s probably better knowing that you miss the front half of the year rather than the second half of the year.

“Especially after the last few years and what we’ve been able to do, you want to be there for the pointy end of the season.”

Roughead said he hurt the knee in a match against Carlton last season, but had had an interrupted pre-season before the injury flared up.

“I played the rest of the season, did the finals and had the scan at the end of the year to see if I could still go on the International Rules trip,” he said.

“It came up fine and we went on that trip and had a good time, then came back and started pre-season.

“I finished the camp up in Queensland, did all the training over Christmas then came back, and for some reason - I don’t know why - the knee started to flare up just after Christmas when we got back.

“I had a scan and we thought we’d just wait for two weeks to see how it goes, but unfortunately it didn’t get any better.”

A “clean-up” option was available, which could have shortened Roughead’s absence to around eight weeks.

But Roughead said the PCL reconstruction would hopefully ensure he is fighting fit at the business end of 2016 and beyond.

“They said this could prolong your career and you could play a bit longer, so it’s a no-brainer with our medical staff, who’ve been so good over the last few years,” he said.