HAWTHORN captain Luke Hodge will undergo surgery this week to fix a knee problem he carried for much of the season.

Back in round six against St Kilda, Hodge suffered a posterior cruciate ligament injury in his left knee and missed the next 10 games.

Hawthorn football manager Mark Evans was hopeful Hodge would be running before Christmas.

"He's going into hospital next week for an operation to do with his PCL," Evans told The Age. "It needs some stablisation and they'll have a look at it while they're in there and do a bit of a clean-out.

"He should be running before the end of the year, so he'll just need to take it a little bit slowly. We don't start pre-season until late November, so he'll just be a few weeks behind the rest of the group.

"He's fine, but the knee's not quite as stable as it could be."