When the 19-year-old went down at training in mid-January, the whole club was stunned.
"At training you're always upbeat and you're feeling good and you're running around having a great time and then something like that happens and there's just this melancholy feeling for the rest of that day, and probably for a couple of days after it," Mitchell told hawthornfc.com.au
"You know that that's a guy that's going through something that probably no one should have to really go through.
"It's a horrible part of our game but it's something that you have to deal with in life, but like Max Bailey, he'll come back stronger for it."
Woodward first injured the same knee during a NAB Cup game against Greater Western Sydney at Aurora Stadium last February.
His game is partly modelled on Mitchell, and the club has high hopes for him.
"The hard part I guess is he's just been going so well you know his rehab had gone perfectly from his last knee," Mitchell said.
"He wanted to play at the end of last year and they held him back and made sure he was right, and did a heap of extra training with him.
"And then he just does an unorthodox sort of movement and bang it goes again, you just feel for the kid."
Mitchell said seeing a teammate suffer a serious injury is always difficult.
"I guess it's hard because you don't want to gather around him physically, because he's going through so many emotions himself," he said.
"One of the things you try and do is just be there to support him as much as you can."
