JACK Viney will miss “at least four weeks”, after being a late withdrawal from Saturday’s win over the Western Bulldogs at the MCG, due to a toe injury.

Viney said it was the same bone in his foot that he hurt previously – which kept him sidelined late last season and into the early part of 2018 – but he was optimistic he wouldn’t miss as much football this time around.

“It’s been progressively getting a little bit sorer over the last couple of weeks and we decided to get a scan on it last Friday,” he said from AAMI Park on Monday.

“It showed a little bit of bone stress and luckily we got onto it early, but I’m going to miss a few [weeks].

“I’ve been here before, but we’re at a much earlier stage, which is good. I had a full stress fracture in the pre-season and this is just a hot spot, and this is the early signs of bone stress.”

Viney missed the opening seven rounds of the 2018 season, before returning to play one match with Casey Demons. He then made his comeback with Melbourne against Carlton at the MCG in round nine.

But Viney said he noticed a flare-up heading into Melbourne’s round 16 clash against Fremantle at TIO Stadium in Darwin.

“Going into the Freo game, I was a little bit aware of it,” he said.

“I made the decision that if I felt like that the week after, and it hadn’t got any better, then we’d look in to it. The day before we played the Doggies, I wasn’t feeling too flash.

“I got all of the necessary scans and got onto it early.”

Viney said he would “deload” for a couple of weeks, and let the bone heal.

“Then we’ll reassess. The reloading is part of it and it’ll take a couple of weeks,” he said.

“For the first couple of weeks, it’ll be slow and quiet.”

Viney was philosophical about his latest setback.

“I’m not down in the dumps. I understand this is part of the sport and hopefully I’m only missing four weeks and there is plenty of football to played – and to finish off the season, and potentially finals as well,” he said.

“I’m staying really optimistic and I’m just taking it step-by-step at the moment.

“There is the chance that we can play post [home and away] season, and I’ll certainly be using that as a bit of motivation. If the opportunity was to arise, then hopefully I’m fit by then.

“I’ve got a bit of work to do before that happens, but fingers crossed that I’ll be able to get back and finish off the rest of the season.”