The 21-year-old suffered his fourth serious knee injury when he ruptured the LARS graft in his left knee while playing in the VFL on April 20.
It was the third time he had snapped the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.
On Tuesday Menzel underwent surgery to clean up the previous work done to that knee.
"After consulting a number of experts around the world, we got all the information and put it on the table and we all considered it with Daniel," Geelong physio Mike Snelling told CatsTV.
"We're going with a surgeon in Melbourne, and his advice was to take all the hardware out of his knee.
"Because of the operations he's had in the past there'll be some holes in his bones.
"We need to take some bone from his hip and pack those holes up, so that in three months' time, when we go to put the new graft in, there's good bone for us to put … that graft in."
Menzel will undergo a traditional reconstruction in August, which will involve a piece of his patella tendon being used to form a new anterior cruciate ligament.
Before that operation takes place, he will take some leave from the club to travel overseas.
"We've got to take a really balanced approach to his rehab," Geelong coach Chris Scott said.
"It's not all about hard work and being at the club and facing that mental stress.
"He's going to have a period of downtime when he can't do much to improve his knee, so it only makes sense that he uses that time to try and get away and forget about footy as much as is possible."
It is expected that Menzel will be sidelined for between 12 and 15 months, meaning he is unlikely to be running around in the AFL until the early rounds of the 2015 season.
"These things are pretty fluid," Scott said. "But it is highly unlikely that he will back before 12 months."
Scott says that Menzel remains upbeat despite his terrible run of luck.
"He's been good all the way through," Scott said. "Obviously we were all devastated initially, but he's really committed to getting back and playing footy.
"I think the big turning point for him and for us was when we got a number of expert opinion and that were all really positive.
"They didn't seem to think there was any reason that this reconstruction shouldn't be considered in isolation, and that if the procedure goes well and he rehabs it well, he should get back and have a long career in front of him."
Adam McNicol covers Geelong news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter at @AFL_AdamMcNicol
