Luke Davies-Uniacke’s season has come to a premature end with the midfielder requiring a shoulder reconstruction.
The 20-year-old has been managed through the latter part of the year according to North GM football Cameron Joyce.
“It’s something that we’ve been well aware of, but we’ve been able to navigate him through up until now,” Joyce said.
“Luke had an incident earlier in the season when he fended off an opponent, and he did some damage to his right shoulder.
“The discussions about putting him in for an operation have been ongoing, and with a potential four-month recovery, now is the right time to allow him to have as much of the preseason as possible to prepare for a big 2020.”
Davies-Uniacke doubled his debut year output in 2019, playing 14 games and averaging 15 disposals.
“We want to ensure Luke has every opportunity to hit the ground running next year and we expect he’ll be fully fit to resume full-training just before, or immediately after the Christmas break,” Joyce added.
“He’ll have surgery this week and his recovery and rehabilitation will begin immediately.”