THE apparent success of the radical surgery Sydney used to fast-track Nick Malceski's recovery from a severe knee injury has not convinced the wider AFL medical community that the procedure is the way of the future.

Malceski last night played his 11th match of the season, against the Western Bulldogs at the MCG, after his 2008 campaign appeared over in February when he tore his right anterior cruciate ligament during a practice game.

However, the president of the AFL Medical Officers Association on Thursday said rival clubs remained apprehensive about the Swans' approach and, in the short term, forecast only the odd trial with artificial fibres.

After striking an injury that has ruined the season of every other footballer before him, 24-year-old Malceski made a stunning return just 12 weeks after having the ligament augmentation and reconstructive system (LARS) operation that cut his recovery time by nine months.

Geelong this week contemplated taking the same approach with Brent Prismall, the young Cat who was injured against St Kilda last Sunday, but eventually favoured the traditional approach to knee reconstruction, which uses tendons from other parts of patients' bodies to replace the ruptured ACL rather than an artificial polyester graft.

Fremantle is the only other AFL club that has experimented with the LARS operation, using it on 26-year-old Luke Webster, who retired last month after an unsuccessful recovery.

Webster played 91 days after having the same procedure as Malceski, but was advised shortly after that he required further surgery on the same knee.

Melbourne Storm rugby league player Ben MacDougall's season also ended prematurely this year after he encountered complications with the LARS method.

MacDougall spent a month in and out of hospital battling an infection in his reconstructed knee, and at one stage it was feared that he would have to have the artificial graft removed.

"I think that every time an AFL player suffers the ACL injury they will consider it and discuss it with their doctor and surgeon, but I think the eventual uptake of this in the next few years is still going to be small," AFLMOA head Dr Hugh Seward said.

"Our great reluctance to embrace it is that there is very little knowledge and experience about the prospects for success, and that the experience in the past has been bad and so we would regard that as a considerable risk to take, choosing that procedure above the tried and true method that we know in good hands is highly successful."

Sydney's medical staff has been reluctant to evaluate the success of Malceski's treatment publicly until after the Swans' season is over and declined the opportunity on Thursday.