JARED Polec won't require surgery to fix the fractured navicular bone in his foot, but the Port Adelaide midfielder’s return this season remains doubtful.

Scans just before the club's bye last weekend indicated a level of natural healing in the bone and the 22-year-old is now walking unaided.

However, the Power's high performance manager Darren Burgess said the club would take an ultra conservative approach with Polec's recovery, given the dangers of the condition.

Stress fractures in that area of the foot are infamous for impeding, and even ending, players' careers; Polec is contending with the same issue that has held former Melbourne captain Jack Trengove to just two games in the past two seasons.ac

Port coach Ken Hinkley has maintained that the treatment of Polec's injury aimed to save his career, not his season.

“The scan that we had last week showed some signs that the bone was healing,” Burgess told portadelaidefc.com.au.

“So we decided against taking the surgical option immediately and we’ll give the bone probably another 4-5 weeks to heal before reviewing again.”

“You’ve got to give those bones as much time as possible, we can’t put a timeline on it.

“We’ll rescan – probably every 2-3 weeks – and see, hopefully, that the healing continues and that we don’t need to go in with any kind of surgery, but we just don’t know how it will progress, even though the results of these new scans are encouraging.

“It will get better when it does, everyone knows how dangerous naviculars can be."

In better news for the Power, ruckman Patrick Ryder has been cleared of his Achilles injury and is available to take on the Sydney Swans at the SCG on Thursday night.