Western Bulldogs defender Dale Morris will approach the rehabilitation from his ACL injury in a similar manner to last year.

The 36-year-old injured his left knee at training on Friday last week, with scans confirming a high-grade injury to his ACL.

“Dale is an incredibly diligent and professional athlete, so we will put a comprehensive rehab program around him to do everything we can to get him back to playing AFL footy this season,” Medical Services Manager Chris Bell said.

“We have decided to manage Dale’s knee injury conservatively, and that means he will not require any surgery.  Dale will go into a splint in the hope that the cruciate ligament heals.

“This is similar to how we managed his partial ACL injury to his opposite knee last season.

“We will assess the stability and degree of healing of the cruciate again in four-to-six weeks to determine when he can come out of the splint. It’s also at this time that we will get a clearer idea of his return to play timeline.”

Morris said he was determined to fight back to pull on the red, white and blue again.

“Not once have I thought, ‘maybe this is it’,” Morris said.

“That’s just not in my DNA. I want to play for as long as I can, and this doesn’t change that.

“I’ll be doing everything I can to get back, because I just love playing for this football club so much.

“Time-frame wise, we just don’t know. We’re going to be aiming for around that mid-year mark, (but) it could blow out, it could come in, we’ve just got to wait and see how it goes.”

*A full injury update will be available tomorrow via the Club’s website.