ESSENDON star Mark McVeigh will miss three to five weeks after an old knee injury flared up. McVeigh will have surgery on the knee on Thursday.

It’s a big blow to the Bombers who are already without Andrew Lovett due to a two week suspension handed down by the leadership group for failing to attend a compulsory training session on Monday after he was socialising on Sunday night.

Veteran full-back Dustin Fletcher said the loss of the gun midfielder would be a big blow for the team.

"I spoke to him last night and he was a little bit disappointed, obviously, to miss three to four games," he said.

"He saw the surgeon this morning [Wednesday] and we'll know more later today when we train, but he's definitely disappointed, and so are we, because he's been in great form, and one of our top midfielders through the year."

McVeigh had just returned from a hamstring injury, and Fletcher said the club had been nursing the knee along.

"His knee had been sore the last couple of weeks and he'd been managing it alright.

"I'm not sure if he did something in the game, but it did swell up after the game, and you know when there's a bit of swelling that there's usually something wrong, so we've found that out now.

"If you ask him, he'd probably say two weeks and he'd be back out there, because that's the type of person he is, he just wants to get out there.

"Three weeks is probably best-case scenario, but he was hoping last night that he wouldn't miss any more than four.

"But in saying that, if they get in there and clean it up, and there's not as much damage as they think, it might only be two or three weeks. Time will tell."

Team manager, David Calthorpe, told the club website McVeigh has damage to the surface lining of his knee cartilage.

“He will see knee specialist Julian Feller to have surgery to repair the damage,” Calthorpe said.

“He will be sidelined for up to five weeks which is obviously a big blow for the club as he is such an important player and has been in good form.

“It is an old injury that has flared up over time this season and, unfortunately, it has reached the stage where we need to rectify it.”

According to the website, Calthorpe insisted that “the club plans to aggressively rehabilitate McVeigh to get him back into the side ASAP”.