Blossoming Hawks spearhead Mitch Lewis has been tipped to miss the first month of the 2023 AFL season at a minimum, with the 24-year-old still recovering from a sprained ACL.
Lewis first sustained the injury during training last month, however, in a stroke of fortune, the forward has managed to avoid surgery.
As first reported by Callum Twomey of AFL Media, Hawthorn is yet to place a timeline on Lewis' return. But when pressed, Hawks head coach Sam Mitchell contended he would likely be without his club's key target until after Easter.
"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 Twomey.
"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."
While few have Hawthorn finishing anywhere other than the bottom four in 2023, Lewis' delayed start to the season will act as a bump to the blueprint at Waverley.
Scheduled to face Essendon (MCG), Sydney (SCG), North Melbourne (York Park) and Geelong (MCG) throughout the first month, Mitchell will now need to find alternative avenues to goal.
But with absence comes opportunity, with Mitchell stressing that each of Emerson Jeka, Jai Serong or recent recruit Fergus Greene could all be called on to fill the void.
Mitchell averaged 2.8 goals per game across his 15 appearances in 2022, finishing with 37.15 for the year with 35 marks inside 50 to boot.
Despite finishing in 13th position, Hawthorn managed a mean score of 81 points per game on the year. Yet, in the seven fixtures played in Lewis' absence, this average dipped to less than 74 points per game.
Should Lewis prove fit by Round 5, the Calder Cannons product will make his return during the AFL's inaugural Gather Round.
Given the likelihood of obtaining another early selection in the 2023 AFL Draft, Hawthorn will have eyes on the draft prospects game in Mount Gambier during the corroboree weekend.
Though unable to call on Lewis, Mitchell will muster his Hawks for a pair of pre-season clashes, starting on February 23 with a trip to Kardinia Park to face the Cats, and concluding with a date against the Pies in Launceston on March 2.