INJURED Port Adelaide star Chad Wingard won't speculate on his chances of playing in round one as he recovers from knee surgery.

The prodigiously talented 21-year-old had a clean out of his knee just over a week ago.

He was tipped to miss between four and six weeks of training, making his efforts to face Fremantle on April 5 a race against time.

Helping to launch an AFL 9s competition in Adelaide on Thursday, Wingard said he hadn't laid out a timeline for his return.

"Round one is so far away and it's really hard to know [whether I'll play],'' Wingard said.

"There's no time frame for my return. I'll come back when it feels good.

"Hopefully it will be sooner rather than later, but that's all I can say at the moment.

"I've got to let it [the knee] rest and we've got no [return] goals yet."

Wingard tried to train through the injury, which occurred when he landed on the knee at training. 

The club eventually conceded surgery was required, although Wingard said it was only a minor procedure. 

"I just had a clean out to tidy the knee up,'' he said.