NORTH MELBOURNE veteran Nick Dal Santo hopes to be back within eight weeks after surgery on his left hamstring, but says a more realistic return date is 10-12 weeks.

Speaking outside Epworth Hospital before surgery on Thursday afternoon, Dal Santo said he had been relatively pain-free since injuring his hamstring during North Melbourne’s win over the Brisbane Lions last Sunday and felt like he could play this round.

Dal Santo said his injury had felt no worse than "a corkie" after Sunday's game, admitting specialist advice this week that his hamstring injury was tendon-related and would sideline him for the first half of 2015 had been "confusing".

But the midfielder said he had decided to take the "conservative" option of surgery over letting the hamstring heal naturally, confident this would enable to him to hit top form in the second half of 2015.

"I think the general course (of recovery) for this sort of injury is 10-12 (weeks) and we'll just play it by ear," Dal Santo said.

"We'll just see how I recover. It's all dependent on how I'm feeling, how aggressive we can go with the recovery and then obviously post that whether I'm ready to get a game or not.

"(Having surgery) is the conservative way to go. I didn't think surgery was on the cards at all even after the game and probably even now four or five days later I actually feel really good.

"I'm walking, you saw me jump out of the car, I'm in no pain at all.

"So it's a little bit confusing for me first of all to go from obviously playing on Sunday to all of a sudden getting surgery, to getting eight, 10, 12 weeks (on the sidelines)."

Dal Santo believes he can have "some sort of an impact" in the second half of this season, taking confidence from former St Kilda teammate Nick Riewoldt's successful return from a more serious off-the-bone hamstring tear in 2010 and Hawthorn star Sam Mitchell's return from a hamstring tendon injury last season.

Even if he misses 12 weeks, Dal Santo will have nine rounds to build fitness and form ahead of September if North makes the finals.

When asked whether he was concerned he might not return to his best after surgery, the 31-year-old was optimistic.

"I haven't really thought about it. Just off the top of my head, I'm not the quickest bloke in the world so I don't know that I'll lose any speed," Dal Santo said. 

"I'm not the longest kick so I don't know that I'll lose any distance with my skills.

"Maybe it's my personality that I'm a little bit more positive, but I feel that I'll be OK."

Dal Santo played against the Lions despite experiencing tightness in his hamstring in the week leading up to the game.

But he has no regrets about playing last Sunday, saying his injury had been "an isolated incident" that could have occurred if he'd been feeling 100 per cent.

"At no stage did I feel as though I was going to do my hamstring, even at half-time," Dal Santo said.

"Just out of coincidence in the game I had a couple of instances where I was running full speed and had to bend over, which is how you normally do [a hamstring injury], but I didn't have any issues with it."

Dal Santo had been on the longest active games streak in the AFL before his injury, having played 104 consecutive games. 

The last game he missed was in round 16, 2010, when he was with St Kilda.

Having had such a good run with injury over his career, Dal Santo realised he had been "lucky" and was odds-on to suffer a long-term injury eventually.

"I'm more disappointed that I'm just not going to be a part of it," he said.

"It's the first time that it's really happened to me on this scale, but I'm already sort of missing it."