CAPTAIN Nathan Jones will undergo surgery on his neck after carrying the injury for most of the 2015 season.
Jones, who remarkably played every match this year, will be sidelined for two to three months, as he recovers from the setback.
Manager of football operations Josh Mahoney said Jones would have surgery on Monday.
“Nathan’s been struggling with a neck injury for the majority of the year. At times during the year, it affected his strength and ability to compete around stoppages,” he told melbournefc.com.au.
“There were a couple of options for us, in terms of improving this, but we’ve decided that the best course of action is for Nathan to have an operation on a disc in his neck and this operation will happen next Monday.
“As you can imagine, an operation involving the neck and disc will require a lot of rehabilitation. Nathan will have a period of rest before gradually building up towards non-contact training pre-Christmas.
“All timelines at this stage suggest that Nathan will not be affected by his ability to play during the NAB Challenge series or the regular season.”
Incredibly, Jones has missed just five games since he made his AFL debut in round 17, 2006.
He missed four matches from 2007-09 and has been sidelined just once from 2010-15, when he was a late withdrawal against the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba in round 14, 2012, due to a calf injury.
Jones, who has won the past three Melbourne best and fairest awards, is a chance to win his fourth when the club holds its Keith ‘Bluey’ Truscott Memorial Trophy count at Crown Palladium on Friday night.
The much-admired Demon notched up his 200th AFL match in Melbourne’s second last round of the season against Fremantle at Domain Stadium, but didn’t play out the match due to an ankle injury.
Despite being substituted out of the match and flying back home on crutches, Jones managed to finish the year on a high with a win and a season-best 36 disposals against Greater Western Sydney at Etihad Stadium.
