THE SURGEON who saved Tom Liberatore's 2016 season has operated on Geelong captain Joel Selwood as the Cats bid to get their star midfielder back in time for finals.
And the club says the 29-year-old had "really successful" surgery to repair his left ankle and expects him to be back running in three weeks.
Dr David Young was the surgeon who operated on Liberatore following round 19 last season, performing a rarely used operation that saw him return in time for the Bulldogs' elimination final 41 days later.
The same syndesmosis injury finished Carlton captain Marc Murphy's season after round 12 last year and there has been scepticism that Selwood would be able to return in time for finals, as the Cats hope.
Like the Bulldogs, who had Liberatore's surgery performed the day after his injury, Geelong acted fast and Selwood had surgery on Monday.
Cats football manager Steve Hocking said the club's medicos and Dr Young had advised that "everything went according to plan".
"They're saying that it was really successful and from here it's really about progression now," Hocking told Fox Footy on Monday night.
"The expectation with the surgery is that he'll be back running in three weeks.
"From there, knowing Joel the way I do, he'll do everything he can within his powers to recover.
"He's shown throughout his career that he does recover really well."
Geelong's decision to operate on Selwood with the aim of getting him back after just three missed matches and after the pre-finals bye came after consultation with specialists in the field.
Before going in for surgery, the tough skipper said he was intent on playing again this year.
"I look forward to hopefully the first final," Selwood told Channel Nine.
"Obviously an injury that has been similar to this is 'Libba' (Liberatore) last year so it gives me good confidence that it could be a similar timeframe."
The operation performed on Liberatore involved inserting a piece of surgical string into the ankle to hold the tibia and fibula bones in the ankle together, allowing them to heal.
"Obviously I didn't get the scan results I was hoping for on the weekend," Selwood said on the Cats' website.
"The ankle was actually feeling not too bad on Saturday but after catching up with the specialist we decided we'll have surgery.
"It's as simple as a tighten-up of the ankle so I'll go and have that done and miss the remainder of the home and away season but be ready for what's next after that."
Selwood suffered the ankle injury late in the third term of Friday night's 46-point loss to Sydney as his leg got caught under a Lance Franklin tackle.
