THE CHANCES of seeing Brisbane Lions ruckman Matthew Leuenberger again this season appear to be slim, with coach Justin Leppitsch hesitant to unleash him in the final three rounds.

Leuenberger had surgery to his right knee following round four, and has returned through the Lions' NEAFL team in the past two weeks.

He played his first full game against Southport last Saturday and was among the best players.

But Leppitsch said he had reservations about returning the injury-prone 26-year-old to the seniors before the season's end.

"There's a side of me that thinks 'What's the point?'

"You only risk injury when you play," he said.

Leuenberger has been dogged by injury for much of his eight-season career - playing just 93 games over that period – but is undoubtedly one of the Lions' most important players.

Leppitsch admitted there was a temptation to give him a run to see how he could gel in combination with revitalised Stefan Martin.

"It's also (a chance) for him to get out there and get some continuity and also see him and Stef work together; I think that's going to be good for the group too," he said.

"You don't want to bring him back too early just for the sake that you'd like to see him out there.

"It's whether he can get through a game and whether it's the right thing by him."

Leppitsch is struggling to nurse his young team through an entire season, but said there were no excuses for last weekend's 105-point loss against Adelaide.

He said that simply reflected poor attitude.

The Lions play Collingwood at the MCG on Saturday night, and finish off with Fremantle at home and Geelong at Simonds Stadium.

With Jonathan Brown and Brent Moloney retired, and Daniel Rich (knee), Jack Redden (ankle) and Brent Staker (foot) gone for the season, Leppitsch has little choice but to juggle his youngsters for the remaining three weeks.

He would not let the players blame fatigue, but said they faced some new challenges.

"Funny enough, we have played better off a bye both times - we've had our best games off the bye," he said, referring to wins over Carlton and Gold Coast.

"Young boys haven't played against men before and they haven't played 22 rounds either.

"They're not excuses for performances, most of those are mental things. We've proven we can play good football on any given day, so we have to accept our best is good enough - we can't accept performances below that."

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