LUCKLESS Geelong forward Daniel Menzel won't play this season.

The 22-year-old has been experiencing tendinitis in his left knee (the one that has been reconstructed three times) and his specialists have decided to postpone his return to the field until 2015.

"The reconstruction is progressing well," Geelong's general manager of football, Neil Balme, said on Wednesday.

"Part of Dan’s patella tendon was used in the graft, and this is the area that is causing the problems.

"We are looking at the long-term here, so there is no point rushing Dan’s return.

'I'm used to the pain'



"The focus is ensuring Dan is at his best when he comes back to play.

"Our medical team will continue to work with him on his rehabilitation and remain confident that Dan will be ready for pre-season."

Menzel's promising career first hit the skids when his right knee gave way in a qualifying final against Hawthorn in September 2011.

It was just his 21st AFL game.

He fought back to full fitness, then tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee while playing for Geelong's VFL team against North Ballarat at Simonds Stadium in June 2012.

Six months later his left knee collapsed again, this time during a pre-season tackling drill.

Menzel secretly underwent LARS surgery, in which a synthetic ligament was used, and set himself for another comeback effort.

But his push to be part of the Cats' tilt at the 2013 premiership ended in disaster when he snapped the LARS graft while playing for their VFL team against Box Hill last April.

His fourth reconstruction (the third on his left knee) was a two-stage process.

The first operation, last May, involved filling in the holes in his knee joint left by the previous surgeries.

After an initial period of rehabilitation, Menzel had a patella tendon graft inserted in August.

A couple of months later he headed to the United States to work with renowned injury expert Bill Knowles.

He was aiming to be back training with his teammates in February, then be ready to play again by June.

But the resilient Cat is now looking towards next season.