JEREMY Howe will require shoulder surgery and be sidelined for up to 12 weeks of the upcoming pre-season.

The Collingwood defender revealed that he will go in for an operation on his shoulder in the coming weeks, but before then he has a holiday booked for Europe starting Monday week.

The defender said there was no other way around it, with Howe set to have a significant delay before getting into training this summer.

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"I just need a bit of a tighten up," Howe said.

"It won't be too bad, but in saying that I haven't had shoulder surgery so I couldn't tell you.

"I think it might be a 12-week recovery phase but it needs to be done. If you're going to get it done you may as well do it in the off-season."

Howe has also taken aim at social media trolls who have unfairly blamed runner Alex Woodward for costing Collingwood the game.

The former Hawk, who acts as the Magpies' runner while also playing for the club's VFL team, got in the way of Jaidyn Stephenson as he went to mark a kick – that may not have found the target anyway – from Taylor Adams.

The kick was intercepted by Eagle Elliot Yeo who kicked a crucial goal late in the third term to put West Coast in front for the first time since the fifth-minute mark of the first term.

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Woodward was visibly distraught in the rooms after the game, although coach Nathan Buckley reassured him that he was not to blame.

"He was pretty emotional after the game, but to be honest he got ... I don't know if I should say it, but social media is an absolute nightmare of a system, because it ridicules people when they shouldn't be," Howe said.

"'Woody's' one of the nicest, polite, genuine, loving guys I've ever met. And to see him that distraught after the game, that's probably one of the things that got to me.

"We love him as a bloke. And, at no stage, is there anything … if anyone even hints to the (idea) that it has anything to do with it, it makes me angry, because I love him as a bloke and it's affected him a fair bit."

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Howe said the incident involving Woodward, who has undergone four knee reconstructions and is hoping for another chance at AFL level, had nothing to do with the result.

"We had plenty of opportunities to get the result done and we didn't get it done, but that's alright," he said.

"We'll move on, we'll support him, we'll hug him, I'll have a beer with him this afternoon and we'll forget about it."