North Melbourne's No.1 ruckman Hamish McIntosh faces a delayed start to the AFL season because of another Achilles tendon injury.

McIntosh is likely to undergo surgery on Wednesday to fix his left Achilles, following an operation in January on the right tendon.

While the Kangaroos do not want to say how long he is out of action until they know the results of the surgery, he's highly unlikely to be ready for round one.

"We don't want to put an actual time frame in terms of how many games is he going to miss," North football manager Donald McDonald said on the club website.

"Once we get the operation completed, we'll have a really good understanding of the sort of injury we are dealing with.

"If it's similar to the first one, its going to be a three or four-week recovery period and then as to how long it takes for him to get himself fit ... we don't want to really make any guesstimates on that until we get the surgery done."

Coach Brad Scott conceded McIntosh will probably not be available for their opening match on March 27 in Perth against West Coast.

"We'd love to have Hamish for round one, but at this stage that's going to be an uphill battle for him," Scott said.

McIntosh started having trouble with his left Achilles tendon as he was returning to full training in after last month's surgery.

"My right side is feeling terrific and the procedure was successful, but I've had some soreness in the left one over the past few days and it needs the same sort of treatment," McIntosh said.

McIntosh, 26, has played 99 games for the Kangaroos since his 2005 debut and was nominated for the 2007 and `09 All Australian teams.

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