GEELONG'S Daniel Menzel is expected to decide by the end of the week whether to try and continue his AFL career after scans confirmed he suffered a fourth serious knee injury on the weekend.
The luckless 21-year-old hurt his left knee - the one that he had LARS surgery on late last year - while playing for the Cats' VFL team against Box Hill at Simonds Stadium on Saturday.
"He pivoted on that knee when an opponent tried to get around him," Geelong physio Mike Snelling told CatsTV.
"He felt an immediate pop and some pain and he was pretty adamant that he had done some damage.
"We've subsequently scanned him, and that's the knee that had the LARS graft, and that graft is snapped up near its insertion.
"Now … we've all got to get our heads together and think about the future for Dan's knee - what's best for his knee.
"We're going to go through every single possibility we can and leave no stone unturned.
"Dan will obviously have a big impact on that as well.
"Hopefully, by the end of the week we’ve made some pretty clear decisions on what we are going to do going forward."
Menzel visited St John of God Hospital in Geelong on Monday morning and spoke with a number of reporters on his way into the imaging clinic.
"Shattered that I've possibly done the same thing again," he said.
"We'll have the scans to see how we go, but there's not a lot of hope there, so we'll wait and see."
After undergoing the scans, Menzel consulted with Geelong's club doctors, who confirmed his worst fears.
He will now require a third knee reconstruction on his left knee. It will be his fourth overall, as he needed reconstructive surgery on his right knee in 2011.
Late on Monday, Geelong's general manager of football Neil Balme said Menzel had to weigh up his options.
"He was pretty confident that it was the perfect rehab this time and that it was all good … he’s a pretty resilient kid, but he’s thinking, ‘Well I’m going to pretty anxious when I play next’, so that’s why ... we’ve got to go through it all and try to work out what the best options are," he said.
"If there’s something we didn’t do right last time, is there something we can do differently … but I don’t think any of that will make it any less anxious when he plays.
"We’re hoping we can get him right and give him a chance to play."
Taken by the Cats with pick 17 in the 2009 NAB AFL Draft, Menzel made his AFL debut against the Western Bulldogs in round 20 of the 2010 season.
He played three games in all that season, then became a regular member of the Geelong team the following year.
But just four days before his 20th birthday, Menzel suffered his first serious knee injury when he ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in the 2011 qualifying final against Hawthorn.
To that point, he had played 21 games and kicked 32 goals, with a best haul of five majors in Geelong's thumping round 24 win over Collingwood in the final round of the 2011 home and away season.
Menzel then tore the ACL in his left knee in his comeback match for Geelong's VFL team against North Ballarat at Simonds Stadium in June last year.
He re-injured his left knee during a tackling drill at training in December and chose to undergo LARS surgery in a bid to get back on the field as quickly as possible.
The super-talented South Australian started his latest comeback when he lined up against Sandringham in the VFL on April 14, and he played three quarters, gathered eight possessions and kicked a goal.
Prior to that match, the Cats had played down talk it was Menzel's last chance to resurrect his career.
"If there's a bad outcome somewhere along the line, then I think he'll face that the same way he's faced this one," Geelong coach Chris Scott said.
"And I'm quite prepared to say this publicly: if, at some point, he hurts his knee again, we'll just go through the same process, and he'll be back because the medical staff are telling us there's no reason he can't be."
Menzel ruptured his LARS graft on Saturday.
Whether he, or the club, is prepared to embark on a fourth comeback attempt is unclear at this stage.
Adam McNicol covers Geelong news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter at @AFL_AdamMcNicol
