Waterhouse underwent surgery this morning to have a pin inserted in his left collarbone and is the latest in a series of setbacks for the Western Australian club.
Waterhouse joins ruckman Clem Michael who is still three months away from resuming from knee surgery, on the sidelines.
Michael's presence has been sorely missed during the pre-season tournament where the Dockers have been consistently beaten out of the centre breaks.
The club's new recruit Simon Eastaugh was dropped back to the WAFL for the game against the Cats, leaving promising rookie Justin Longmuir to battle Geelong's Steven King.
Waterhouse's value to the club cannot be measured in his scoring alone - although he led the club's goalkicking last season with 53 - but through his willingness to always provide a contest and ability to trap the ball into the forward line.
Fremantle coach Damian Drum remained philosophical about losing his number one attacking option but said "mercurial players" like Waterhouse were hard to replace.
"In this caper you just get on with it," he said.
"We have fantastic medical staff here and they will get the correct surgeon to do the job and he'll be bouncing back as soon as he can."
His absence increases the pressure on glamour full forward Modra, who has seen little of the ball during the Ansett Cup.
Drum will welcome back clever half forward Stephen Koops against the Kangaroos next Saturday but outstanding teenager Matthew Pavlich or the inconsistent Brendon Fewster loom as the likely replacement at centre half forward.
"A lot of it depends on where we want to play Matthew Pavlich and if we can get some other defenders to do the job in defence, then it lets us play Matthew at half forward," Drum said.
"Sometimes that's not the case and we need to throw Matthew down there as well."
Ryan Fitzgerald's diabolical run with injury has continued, with news the Sydney forward will miss the rest of the AFL season after damaging the cruciate ligament in his knee.
Meanwhile, Swans doctor Nathan Gibbs was a busy man after the practice match win over Collingwood in Newcastle yesterday, with veteran Dale Lewis suffering his third broken arm and pacy teenager Ben Fixter breaking his leg.
The No.4 draft pick at the end of 1998, South Australian junior star Fitzgerald had a shoulder reconstruction in 1999, and then injured his other shoulder when he was about to play his first game.
He kicked five goals on debut last season before suffering a groin hernia.
"It's the first pre-season he's had the chance to have a crack at it, and then this happens," Sydney football manager Steve Laussen said.
Laussen said Lewis was expected to be sidelined for eight weeks despite missing 10 with a break to his other arm last year while Fixter will be out for six weeks after fracturing his tibia near the ankle.
