Rookie defender Michael Hartley is set to miss another six weeks after undergoing surgery on his shoulder on Tuesday.

Hartley injured his shoulder during the second quarter of Collingwood's VFL practice match against the Northern Blues at Princes Park last Friday.

"Michael had an arthroscope to repair an AC joint separation after hurting his shoulder in the game on Friday," Director of Football Geoff Walsh told collingwoodfc.com.au.

"We expect him to miss about six weeks."

It continues a wretched run of bad luck for Hartley who sat out the last three months of last season as a result of shoulder surgery.

View Collingwood's full injury list here.

Originally recruited to the club via the now defunct NSW Scholarship program five years ago, the 19-year-old began to train full time at the Westpac Centre last year and made an impression in his four NAB Cup matches before injury intervened.



Michael Hartley posted this photo to his Instagram account after waking up from his arthroscope on Tuesday, saying "After surgery Selfie #tired #sore #painful #surgery #hospitalfoodispoo #allsmiles". Follow Hartley on Instagram on @michael_harts47.

In other injury news, Dale Thomas (ankle), Alex Fasolo (hamstring) and Ben Reid (knee) all hold hope of playing football in some capacity this week.

The trio, who have been listed as either available or as a 'test' on this week's injury list, will be assessed on the training track during the week ahead of the club's two games across the Easter weekend (Collingwood's VFL team plays the AIS-AFL Academy at the MCG on Thursday evening and the senior team will meet North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium on Sunday).