Geelong has placed injured forward Mitch Brown on the long term injury list. Brown is not expected back for 12 weeks after having surgery on his left leg to remove a bone spur and the plate that was inserted last year.

Brown suffered a break to his leg in a VFL practice match against Collingwood last year and he is expected to resume running in six weeks.

In order to be on the long term injury list a player must be ruled out for a minimum of eight weeks.

The Cats now have the option of upgrading one of the club’s seven rookie listed players to take Brown’s place on the senior list until he is ready to return.

“With Mitch out for around three months we decided to place him on the long term injury list,” Geelong’s general manager of football operations Neil Balme said.

“We can upgrade a rookie at any time, but we will not do that until we need to. There is no rush to do that, but by placing Mitch on the long term injury list it gives us that flexibility. As soon as he is ready to go, Mitch will be back on the list.”

Geelong’s rookie list is led by mature age forward James Podsiadly. Ranga Ediriwickrama, Tom Allwright and Adam Varcoe are second year rookies, with newcomers including Jack Weston, Ben Johnson and Jesse Stringer.