HAWTHORN football operations manager James Fantasia has resigned from his post on the advice of his medical team.
Fantasia has been unwell over the last several few weeks and the Hawks granted him an extended period of sick leave to deal with those issues.
Fantasia, who was previously in a similar role at the Western Bulldogs before joining the Hawks in April, said the decision on whether to continue was taken out of his hands.
"Given the stage of the season I didn’t want to let the club down, but unfortunately I have had to make the difficult decision to leave due to health reasons," Fantasia said in a statement on the club's website.
Hawks CEO Stuart Fox said the club was bitterly disappointed to be losing Fantasia in this fashion, but understood his reasoning.
"We respect that James has put his health and family first in making this decision, and we are disappointed to lose someone with his experience," Fox said.
"While James was a part of the Hawthorn family for only a short time we thank him for his service and wish him well in the future."
Fantasia was head-hunted by the Hawks after former football operations boss Mark Evans took up the role of running football operations at the AFL in March.
He was in the position for just four months.
Hawthorn's head of coaching and development, Chris Fagan, will continue as the club's acting football operations manager for the time being.
