The 21-year-old midfielder has not appeared in an AFL fixture since he played 23 games in his debut 2010 season.
His already twice-reconstructed left knee gave way again during a training drill on 8 January this year, leading him to opt for a form of Ligament Augmentation and Reconstruction System procedure, or LARS, known as a hybrid graft, which is a combination of LARS and a hamstring tendon.
The recovery period from a hybrid graft is slightly longer than that of a conventional LARS artificial ligament procedure.
Lyon said Morabito still had some work to do before he could receive the green light to play again.
“There’s about 100 boxes you have to tick, traditionally,” Lyon said.
“He’s ticked about 90, so he’s got about 10 or so more hurdles that he has to jump, and they’re all significant hurdles.”
Lyon said, with just six rounds remaining in the AFL home and away season, there was a chance Morabito would not play football this season at a competitive level.
“There’s as good a chance that he won’t as he will,” he said.
But the senior coach added that the midfielder was under no pressure to return and asked fans and media to continue being patient.
“We’re all interested, we’ve seen him train and, occasionally, he’ll have some soreness in the knee where we need to back it off,” Lyon said.
“What I’ve been thrilled about is that we’ve all maintained a strong interest and support, but we’ve been really respectful of Anthony’s privacy and let him go along at his own pace and not try dictate to him.”
