Captain Nathan van Berlo remains hopeful of a late-season return after a positive visit to his surgeon on Thursday.
van Berlo, 27, underwent surgery after rupturing his Achilles tendon in a training mishap in January.
The hard-running midfielder remains on crutches and in a moon boot, but has started his rehabilitation program, which currently consists of boxing, upper-body weights and gentle exercises to rebuild the strength in his injured right leg.
It’s been six weeks since van Berlo’s surgery and he said everything was going to plan.
"I saw the surgeon yesterday and he’s pretty pleased with my progress. It's looking good, but I still have to take it slowly for the next period of time,” van Berlo said.
“While there is a little bit of light there at the end of the tunnel, I'm certainly going to try and aim for that (a return this season). It's too hard to speculate at the moment, but I'd certainly like to get back before the season is out, which is the high-motivation factor for me at the moment.
“I'm doing everything I can at the moment to get back as quickly as I can. I'm hopeful … in the past I've been a pretty quick healer. But in saying that, I've spoken to a number of people who have had Achilles injuries and there are a lot of things that can potentially go wrong, so I need to take it slow.”
van Berlo was at Adelaide Oval on Friday for the announcement that free train, tram and bus transport will be included in Adelaide Oval Footy Express services running for all AFL games this season.
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