BRISBANE Lions coach Michael Voss remains hopeful of regaining ruckman Matthew Leuenberger later this year after Jamie Charman was ruled out for the season.

Charman was due to undergo an ankle reconstruction on Monday after battling to overcome the injury he sustained against Collingwood in round four.

Coach Michael Voss said the medical and coaching staff made the decision to have surgery on Friday after Charman failed to respond to treatment.

“He couldn’t change direction and he was obviously still having a problem with his ligaments, so it was just too unstable and too risky for him to come back and do some serious damage to himself,” Voss said on Monday from the Gabba.

“Eventually you’ve got to make a call and for his own interests we had to make that on Friday, he wasn’t making any progression.”

Voss said the club will miss Charman’s physical presence but he was maintaining a positive outlook that the ruckman, who turns 27 next month, still has plenty of good footy left in him.

“We’ve had to put Jamie out to a pasture and feed him up on some good grass and then hopefully bring him back in the pre season bigger and better, which will be good for him because it gives him a full pre season,” Voss said.

Voss is hopeful Matthew Leuenberger (knee) will be back by round 18 to 20 and, in the meantime, Mitch Clark will continue to be the Lions sole big man.

“We’ve got one left,” Voss said, reflecting on the club’s swindling ruck stocks.