HAWTHORN defender Trent Croad could still have a future with the Hawks despite new scans revealing further trouble with his injured foot.

Croad will play no part in Hawthorn’s 2009 campaign but captain Sam Mitchell said the club would look at all options before deciding on his future.

 “He got some new information yesterday," Mitchell said. "It takes a little bit of time to process that both from his point of view and a medical point of view.

“The way you go forward, what sort of surgery needs to be done and what that is going to do for his footy.

"There is no decision being made but there is a lot of information being collated now. Both the club and him are going to figure out what to do with all that information.”

Mitchell said the club was unsure exactly what action to take with Croad’s troublesome foot because it was such a unique injury.

“My understanding is he’s had significant improvements then something will happen and he’ll get in a little bit of trouble,” he said.

“He had a spur and then he got rid of the spur and had some surgery mid-year. He was feeling fantastic, got up to a reasonable training level, got a little bit sore again and then they go in again and find something else wrong.

“The club are doing all their due diligence, looking at international surgeons, seeing if people have done it somewhere else before. All of this stuff takes time so it’s not like a knee-jerk reaction where we come out and say ‘this is what we’re doing’. Everyone wants an answer but the answer is not going to be that simple.”