North Melbourne coach Brad Scott has explained the reasoning behind the decision to send ruckman Hamish McIntosh in for season-ending LARS surgery.

On the way to a potential comeback to the senior side after an impressive return for Werribee, McIntosh experienced swelling in his knee following his first outing in over two months. It was then the decision was made.

“Our attitude was we had to do the very best thing by Hamish and get him back to full fitness as soon as possible," Scott told the team on SEN's Hungry for Sport.

"We really think Hamish has an enormous amount of really good footy ahead of him."

There was a possibility of nursing McIntosh through to the end of 2012, a move Scott admits was tempting, but he says a longer-term approach will prove more beneficial to both player and club.

"The temptation to keep him going towards the end of the year was certainly there, but we just feel in his best interests and in ours we've got to get him fully fit, have the PCL surgery and he'll be absolutely 100 per cent to go on the first day of pre-season and head over to Utah with us."

Mcintosh will have a synthetic graft inserted to fully replace his PCL and stabilise his knee on Thursday, before starting his rehabilitation in a month.