WEST Coast star Nic Naitanui will miss up to two months after being sent for surgery to repair an ongoing Achilles tendon issue.

Naitanui has been playing through the injury, but his form in the past two matches has suffered after the injury flared against the Western Bulldogs in round 11.

• Sheeds turns Tinkerbell for the Big Freeze 2

The ruckman played just 65 per cent of Saturday night's clash against Adelaide and will be sidelined for 6-8 weeks following what the club said was minor surgery this week.  

"Despite managing his training load and taking a conservative approach to his preparation and game time, the injury has not improved," football manager Craig Vozzo said on the club's website.

"He is quite sore after games, even after keeping his weight off his legs last week.

"After our medical staff considered all of the available options, we decided that the minor surgery was in Nic's best long-term interests."

Naitanui was on crutches after his long-running problem flared two weeks ago on the notoriously hard Etihad Stadium surface.

The Eagles said at the time that recovering on crutches was "a normal de-loading process we've been using for quite a while now for his Achilles".

The Eagles will turn to Scott Lycett as their No.1 ruckman in Naitanui's absence, with recruit Jonathan Giles also waiting in the wings.

• Nine things we learned from round 12
• Who impressed for your club in this weekend's state leagues?