Geelong captain Tom Harley says his slow recovery from knee surgery might keep him out of the opening round AFL clash with the Cats' grand final conquerors Hawthorn.

Harley, 30, said he was taking longer than initially expected to regain full fitness after the post-season cleanout.

"We'll see how it goes," the Cats' defender said of his chances for the round one rematch.

"There might be a little bit of doubt, we're not too sure.

"Obviously that's a goal of mine and we'll just sort of move towards that."

Harley said he had resumed running, but could not estimate when he would be ready to play.

"It's a little bit frustrating, I'm obviously on a pretty modified program so far this summer," he told the AFL website.

"We haven't necessarily put a date or anything on it at this stage, we're just working our way through the pre-season up to this date.

"Obviously (pre-season) games are starting next week and I'm not in those plans immediately.

"It's still a little bit up in the air but [we're taking] a conservative approach."

Harley said other recovering Cats, young key forward Tom Hawkins (foot) and running defender David Wojcinski (Achilles) were making better progress.

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