Vince had the lateral meniscus in his left knee removed after twisting awkwardly while tackling Brisbane Lions veteran Luke Power in round 20 last season.
The 25-year-old recovered in time to complete the first block of pre-season training but reported soreness in his knee prior to Christmas and was scheduled for more surgery.
He was expected to return to full training in mid-January, but is yet to progress past running laps and is set to miss the Crows' NAB Cup opener against Port Adelaide and Melbourne on February 11.
Football operations manager Phil Harper said Vince's injury would require ongoing management for the rest of his career.
"Bernie is progressing a bit slower than we would've hoped, but we're still aiming for him to play in the second round of the NAB Cup," Harper told afl.com.au.
"It's a bit similar to Andrew McLeod's injury, with the amount of cartilage left in Bernie's knee. It’s an ongoing management issue, but he should be able to play for another six or seven years.
"If Bernie could play 340 games and play until he was 34 years of age like Andrew did we'd be pretty happy. I don't envisage him playing until 34, but he should still get to age 30 pretty easily."
Injured wingman David Mackay is also aiming to play in round two of the pre-season competition.
Mackay had surgery on his groin in November but Harper said the 22-year-old would be ready to join in full training following the club's trip to the Gold Coast next week.
"David is doing a mini pre-season because he missed all of the first part of the actual pre-season. He'll be right to play by round two or three of the NAB Cup and should be up, fit and firing by round one," Harper said.
"We think we have just enough time left to get him cherry ripe for round one, but we don’t need any more setbacks, so we’ve been pretty cautious with him."
Mackay has been dogged by injury since joining Adelaide via pick No.48 in the 2006 NAB AFL Draft.
The 55-gamer won the Mark Bickley award, which recognises the achievements of a first or second-year player, and finished 11th in the Crows' best and fairest in 2008.
Chris Knights, who injured his quad two weeks ago, will join in full training on the Gold Coast, as will ruckman James Craig, who has been cleared of structural damage after injuring his knee in a tackling drill earlier in the week.
Second-year player Sam Shaw (back) and rookie Chris Schmidt (knee) remain on modified programs.
