ESSENDON youngster Mason Redman could miss the rest of the season after suffering an ankle injury in last week's win over West Coast.
The Bombers confirmed the 20-year-old went down with a syndesmosis joint injury in the final term against the Eagles.
Last year fellow Bomber Mitch Brown missed about two months with a similar injury and the club's high performance manager Justin Crow said Redman's recovery would follow the same timeline.
"What we're going to do is we’re going to operate on that tomorrow, put a band around it," Crow told the club's website.
"(It is a) similar timeframe to return as what Mitch Brown worked through last year, around the eight-week mark usually.
"But obviously we'll be taking this step by step and listening closely to what the surgeon has to say after the operation."
Redman recently played the best game of his career for the Bombers, gathering 24 disposals in their round 12 win over Brisbane.
Essendon plays North Melbourne on Sunday, with Jordan Ridley and Aaron Francis, two well-performed players in the VFL last week, contenders to come into the side for Redman.