Senior coach Chris Scott admits he regrets sending Geelong’s speedster, Steven Motlop, to compete in last year’s international rules series in Ireland.

However, when the decision was made for Motlop to star in the AFL’s first indigenous team to represent Australia his knee condition was far from serious.

"It was just a collaborative decision-making process (that) took place and on the balance of the pros and cons it was decided that he could go.” Scott told News Limited.

"We've got enough respect for that competition that we didn't think we should hold him out. In hindsight, I think given what we know now, he probably shouldn't have gone.

Late last week Motlop undertook a minor procedure to correct his troubled knee after being assessed by a specialist in London.

"He's had some issues with his knee for a long time but this is an issue that deteriorated at the start of the pre-season a little bit, but the main reason (to send him to London to see a knee specialist) was we had some new staff come in and the decision was made to think long-term.

Before Motlop was given the green light to go to Ireland a rational assessment was undertaken - but recent results indicated that correction surgery was going to be a better option for the young forward.

"I guess in a way it would have been better if we'd started that process earlier, we're not pretending that we've done things perfectly there, but the important thing to focus on is that we are doing it, Scott said.

Despite Motlop’s minor set back Scott remains positive and believes he has the experience and fitness to get back to where he was last year.

"I think the reality with Steve is he could be training now and playing in the first part of the season, albeit with a bit of pain, and that's just an unacceptable risk for us, for a 22-year-old who hopefully has 10 good years ahead of him at the Cats.”

"If you look at it within that big picture, that 10-year time frame, if he starts three, four, five weeks later then I think that's a drop in the ocean.

However, Scott doesn’t hold unrealistic expectations for Motlop’s return after missing out on a solid pre-season.

"He's naturally a really good athlete and he's had an enormous workload over the last couple of years so we're pretty comfortable that his base fitness is good, but he has been off his legs for a little while now and the surgery means he'll be off his legs for another few weeks.

"It doesn't matter what sort of athlete you are, this pre-season period is really important so we just need to make sure that we don't fall into the trap of getting into the regular season and thinking he's just got to perform the same way as the other guys - he needs extended exposure to our training before we get him into the standard routine of games week-in, week-out."