The Brisbane Lions have been dealt a major blow with news ruckman Jamie Charman will have reconstructive surgery on his troublesome ankle and miss the remainder of the season.

Charman was first injured in the Lions' loss to Collingwood in Round 4, but the club was optimistic the premiership player could make a return to training after minor surgery.

But Charman has not been able to fully recover, so Lions coach Michael Voss was forced to book him in for surgery on Monday.

"There was a hope he might be able to fully rehabilitate and come back by about Round 14 or 15, but it just hasn't progressed as well as we'd like," Voss said.

"He's been a bit up and down these last few weeks because he's been a bit unsure, but eventually you have to make a call."

"His physical presence is pretty important to us, but he's not out there, so we move on as a football club."

With Matthew Leuenberger still facing a number of weeks on the sidelines with a knee injury, it means Mitch Clark will continue to shoulder the ruck burden for the Lions.

In more positive news for Brisbane, Voss gave the green light for key defenders Joel Patfull (jaw) and Daniel Merrett (ankle) to return from injury-enforced layoffs this weekend against Melbourne.

Rebounding defender Josh Drummond (calf) is a 50-50 proposition according to Voss.

"He hasn't trained yet, so we've deliberately kept him off his legs, so until he functionally starts to move, we're a little bit in the dark about what his chances are," he said.

"If he's not ready to go on Wednesday we'll pretty much pull the plug ... we won't wait till the death, if he's not right on Wednesday we won't pick him."