CROWS star Brett Burton will be sidelined for up 12 months after surgeons decided against performing revolutionary surgery on the torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.

Burton and his surgeon consulted four other professionals before accepting the decision his knee wasn’t in good enough shape to undergo the LARS procedure performed on Swan Nick Malceski and Fremantle utility Luke Webster.

The Adelaide veteran will now undergo a traditional knee reconstruction with the aim of returning after the mid-season break in 2009.

“We went down that path and with that [LARS] surgery you need a fair few things to fall in place to have it. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough healthy tissue in my knee to be able to use the artificial graft to attach it at either end. I’ve got to go with the traditional surgery,” Burton told Radio 5AA.

“We spoke to Nick Malceski’s doctor and we thought about doing an arthroscope and going in to see what tissue was there, but we had enough information on the MRI scans to send to the doctor in Sydney and based on that he said he wouldn’t do the surgery.”

Burton has remained remarkably upbeat since suffering the injury in the third quarter against Collingwood on Saturday and is confident his AFL career can continue.

“Obviously it’s disappointing when you first do it and find out. I guess I’m kind of an upbeat person generally and I’ve had a lot of injuries over my career and missed probably 70 or 80 games,” he said.

“At the same time I’m 30 years old and I’ve had a fantastic career. I’m not looking to finish it now, but I’m not 20 years old and just starting my career.

“I’ve played a lot of footy and I still think I’ve got a lot of footy in me.”

Burton, 30, is out of contract at season’s end and given Adelaide’s strict policy on over-30s, the high-flying forward’s future is at the mercy of the club.

“I’ve got to leave that [my future] up to the footy club. All I can do is go and get the surgery and recover as quickly as possible. Those issues will pan out in the next few weeks when we have the discussion with the footy club,” Burton said.

“I guess the club will have to do its list management and look at its list going forward. They’ll have to assess whether they take the risk when I come out of contract.”