FREMANTLE captain Matthew Pavlich says his midfield role will have to be reviewed during the off-season as he prepares to have surgery on a hip complaint that has troubled him for a number of years.

Pavlich, whose season was effectively ended by a calf injury suffered against North Melbourne last Saturday night, is booked in for surgery on Thursday morning.

The 29-year-old said it would not curtail his preparations for the 2012 season, but the heavy midfield load he had been forced to carry this season may need to be scaled back.  

"I have spoken to Harves (coach Mark Harvey) and our sports science guys quite a number of times about what the split should be," Pavlich said from Fremantle Oval on Wednesday.

"This year was almost unmanageable given the fact we had so many injuries throughout our midfield, I needed to go in there for the team's sake and was happy to do so.

"But I guess going forward we're going to have to review that."
 
Pavlich said he had managed his hip complaint for a number of years but it had got to the point where surgery - which he described as a minor tune-up - would be worthwhile.

The skipper was one of seven Fremantle players injured against North Melbourne and ruled out of Friday night's clash with Collingwood at Patersons Stadium, compounding what was already a crippling injury run for the club.

David Mundy (ankle), Hayden Ballantyne (hamstring) and Adam McPhee (foot) are unlikely to play again this season, and Alex Silvagni (concussion), Greg Broughton (ribs) and possibly Antoni Grover (soreness) have been ruled out this week, leaving Fremantle with 25 fit players to choose from.

Pavlich said it had been an incredibly disappointing year after making the finals in 2010, but injuries were not an absolute excuse. 

"We understood that whoever pulled on the Fremantle jumper week in, week out, we needed to play a certain brand of football," he said.

"We haven't been able to probably do that often enough to be consistent and successful enough to play in the last month of the year.

"It's incredibly disappointing for those players individually but (also) for us as a team not to have the continuity each week to play the way we'd like to have played. that is an AFL season though, injuries occur."

Chief executive Steve Rosich joined Pavlich and Programmed Integrated Workforce managing director Chris Sutherland at Fremantle Oval to announce the renewal of the company's co-major sponsorship of the club for another three years.

Rosich said the club had improved this season in a number of areas, but it was disappointing not to be involved in consecutive finals series. 

"We set ourselves up and we're planning to be a regular finals contender and we may not get there this season," he said.

"We've been challenged in our capacity and capability to put the best foot forward on the field to the 23 rounds to date, so it's probably pretty hard to measure (our season) at this point."

Nathan Schmook covers Fremantle news for afl.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_NSchmook