BRISBANE Lions vice-captain Jed Adcock is still unable to train after off-season hip surgery but is confident he'll be fit by round one next year.

Adcock had the operation in September and said he expected to return in full training by Christmas.

Apart from skipper Jonathan Brown - whose wife Kylie recently gave birth to their second child - Adcock was the only senior player left in Brisbane for the club's two-week altitude training camp taking place in Arizona.

But despite the setback, Adcock said he would be right to go for round one next year.

"The last couple of weeks have come along really quick so hopefully [I'll be in] full training by Christmas which is only a few weeks away," Adcock said.

"It's put me at least three weeks behind, but the good thing I look at is it gives me a good rest going into round one.

"I'll be doing a bit more work than the other boys in January, February, but hopefully it means the body is really refreshed. [The body] feels good. Hopefully it doesn't put me too far behind."

One of the Lions' unsung stars, Adcock signed a three-year contract extension in August that ties him to the club until the end of 2015.

Recently turning 27, he came to the Lions at the end of their premiership years, being drafted with pick No.33 in the 2003 National Draft.

Adcock said they had a good base to move towards the finals next season after notching 10 wins in 2012.

"It was a good finish [to the season]," he said.

"We had some disappointing games, not necessarily games we thought we should have won, but ones we got really blown out, so that was disappointing.

"We came away with 10 wins which we thought would get you pretty close to finals, but you ended up needing 13 or 14 wins, so it was a different year last year.

"We've got a good base to come off but it means nothing if you go into the start of the season losing games."

The Lions squad will return to Brisbane on the weekend and resume training immediately.

Michael Whiting covers Brisbane Lions news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_mikewhiting

The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL