Menzel strained his left knee – the one he had reconstructed in June – during a training drill at Simonds Stadium in early December.
The strain has prevented him from taking part in the club's pre-season training camp at Falls Creek.
"Dan had a minor mishap at training … and we just wanted to make sure that the best treatment was available for him back in Geelong, so he's stayed back there," development coach Nigel Lappin told a press conference at the Mount Beauty football ground on Tuesday.
"He was just doing a little bit of twisting work, but it was nothing major at all, so he'll be fine."
Menzel tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee while playing for Geelong's VFL team against North Ballarat at Simonds Stadium in early June.
It was his first competitive hit-out since he needed reconstructive surgery on his right knee after going down in the 2011 qualifying final win over Hawthorn.
The 21-year-old had been raising his training load in the weeks before his latest setback, and the club remains confident he will be fit to play in the NAB Cup.
"He iced it up straight away and they sent him away to get it all checked out, but it seems to be fine," Lappin said.
A number of other Geelong players are also battling injury problems.
Billie Smedts has been on a restricted program at Falls Creek due to hip soreness.
Smedts received a lot of physio work while his teammates were slogging it out at Mount Beauty on Tuesday.
"Billie has had hip issues ever since he got to Geelong," Lappin said.
"He had them fixed up at the end of the season before last and had a terrific season for us until he broke his finger.
"Unfortunately his hip has been playing up for the last couple of weeks.
"He's got a little bit of a slight glute strain, so he's been pulled out of training for a couple of weeks.
"Hopefully it's nothing too serious and we'll settle it down and he'll be back out there.
"He's done the majority of training so far and he's looked really good."
The Cats are hoping that Smedts will be fit to return to full training after the Christmas break.
"We're hoping it's only a couple of weeks injury and it should settle pretty quickly," Lappin said.
Small forward Lincoln McCarthy, who is battling a foot problem, has also been on a restricted program at Falls Creek.
"Linc's had a stress reaction in his foot that he carried through the last part of (the 2012 season)," Lappin said.
"He didn't play the last five or six games of the season with that, so he's still recovering from that.
"His progress has been a little bit slow – slower than we hoped it would be, but he's a really important player to us … so we'll take as much time as we can.
"We've had a few of those stressy types of foot reactions with our boys that have gone pear-shaped, so we want to make sure that he recovers really well.
"He's getting scans regularly to see how it's healing and at the moment we're a little unsure (how long it will take)."
Adam McNicol covers Geelong news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter at @AFL_AdamMcNicol
