Ben Brown is optimistic about a quick recovery following minor surgery on his injured knee on Wednesday afternoon.

The number 50 sustained the injury against Geelong in Round 10.

“It’s very minor, that’s been the positive thing for me the whole way through is that I knew that I hadn’t done anything major to my knee,” Brown told North Media.   

“On the scans there actually wasn’t a whole lot there after that injury but the inflammation and swelling in the knee is the thing that’s hung around. 

“The swelling’s probably the thing that told us there is maybe something, whether it’s a little flap of cartilage that keeps annoying my knee whenever I try to run, which doesn’t take much to clean up in a surgery room, but it’s something that’s kept me pretty low [volume] in terms of my running. 

“Overall I’m disappointed that I’m not going to be able to get back and play this year and help the guys hopefully get a couple of wins but I think we’ve made the right call.” 

Brown said after a couple of unsuccessful attempts to build on his running, the decision to opt for surgery reduces the risk of a secondary injury.

“We just wanted to give it a really good run at trying to come back this year because I’ve been really excited about getting back and hopefully playing a couple of games. 

“We sort of had a couple of goes early on in that rehab block of some running and it probably didn’t go that well so we gave it a couple more weeks off.

“I understand now in my chats with the physios and coaches and doctors in particular, that the risk is too high and the potential that I come back and even have a soft tissue injury or something unrelated is just too high at the moment because I haven’t had that load over the last month or so. 

“While it’s pretty disappointing I think we’ve made the right call.

“I feel good about where we’re at now and we can just have the surgery and get into our rehab.”