ESSENDON coach Matthew Knights believes star runner Jason Winderlich should be fit for the 2009 pre-season despite the promising Bomber going under the knife for season-ending back surgery early next week.

Winderlich has a prolapsed disc in his back and will miss the rest of 2008, worsening the already significant injury woes at Windy Hill this year.

Knights said it was a cruel blow for the lightning quick defender who had enjoyed “a stellar pre-season”, although the coach is optimistic next week’s surgery should see him fit for a full 2009 campaign.

“We believe so, yeah,” Knights said when asked if Winderlich should be back in time for pre-season.

“The success rate of the operation is pretty high, so therefore we’ve got to put our confidence in the operation, [that] it will come through for us.

“Potentially, maybe the first month of pre-season might be a bit slower, but he will get most of it in.”

Knights was confident that even if Winderlich’s recovery was slightly slower than expected, the 23-year-old would have no problems making up for lost time.

“He’s a pretty lean sort of player,” Knights said.

“He doesn’t carry a lot of excess weight anyway.

“Even if he misses two to four weeks of pre-season it’s not going to bother Jason, he comes to hand pretty quickly so it’s not a big concern.”

There was better news regarding skipper Matthew Lloyd, who was involved in a heavy clash with Carlton captain Chris Judd in last week’s win over Carlton.

While the Blues star is battling to shake off the effects of the first-quarter crunch, Knights says his veteran forward should be okay to take on Freo this weekend.

“Matthew’s fine,” Knights said.

“I think after the game … he may have been a little bit groggy. It was a pretty big hit.

“I thought Matthew and Chris came off the bump or the hit probably nearly as bad as each other.

“It was a pretty significant meeting head-on … he’s going to be right to go.”