Fremantle coach Ross Lyon is hopeful Nat Fyfe won't require knee surgery at the end of the year and is backing the star midfielder to keep playing through his minor niggle.
Fyfe is battling a tendon issue that has left his knee feeling sore on several occasions in recent weeks.
Scans have cleared Fyfe of any serious damage, with a surgeon also giving the knee a green light.
But whether Fyfe will require surgery at the end of the season remains to be seen.
"It's just a really minor ligament ... it just rolls and catches," Lyon said.
"At this point it (surgery) is not necessary. But down the track they would assess that.
"Connor Blakely's had it for 18 months, and it hasn't prevented him at all, and he hasn't needed a procedure at the end either. So hopefully it just settles."
Lyon played down talk that Fyfe may as well go in for a minor "clean out" at the end of the year.
"I don't like the term clean out," Lyon said.
"They don't just clean out. A surgeon told me once that if you have a knee op, they're all serious.
"There's always a chance of infection. We don't just clean it out, we trim cartilage, we adjust ligaments. Any operation is serious."