Bad news for young Cat Bews

GEELONG youngster Jed Bews faces up to 10 weeks on the sidelines after being diagnosed with a stress reaction in his right foot.

The small defender, 19, arrived at the Cats' community camp wearing a moon boot, and late on Tuesday he received the bad news that scans had discovered a "hot spot" in his foot.

"It got sore in one of the drills last Wednesday and I thought, 'I'll just get through it,' but then it got even worse," Bews told AFL.com.au while watching his teammates conduct a clinic for school kids at the Numurkah Showgrounds.

"I told the physio and he told me to keep off it over the weekend, so I did that, but I came back on Monday and it was still pretty sore.

"They put me in a boot and sent me off for a scan to see what the go was."

Although he hasn't yet had the chance to sit down with Geelong's medical staff and discuss the results of his scan, Bews is likely to be wearing the moon boot for the next month.

"We'll get it scanned after that to make sure it's healing, then go from there," he explained.

"I probably won't be able to play footy for anywhere from eight to 10 weeks.

"Hopefully when I get that next scan they say, 'it's not that bad.'

"But it's looking like 10 weeks at this point."

Despite all his hard work during the pre-season so far, Bews will now be forced to watch the NAB Cup and the early rounds of the home and away season from the sidelines.

"It's frustrating, but I can't really do anything now," he said. "I'll just have to wait it out.

"I'll have to do a lot of swimming and we've got these grinding machines in the gym – they suck! – so I'll be doing a lot of that.

"There will still be plenty of things I can do to keep my aerobic fitness up."

Adam McNicol covers Geelong news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter at @AFL_AdamMcNicol