“Third of July, last year.”

Bruno Laguda can recite at the drop of a hat the date he ruptured his ACL playing for the Essendon Doutta Stars in the Essendon Districts Football League.

He was trapped in a tackle, twisted the wrong way and felt the tell-tale blow of a rupturing ligament that put him on the sidelines for a year.

At the time, Laguda was a development train-on member at Essendon. He had made his VFL debut the previous year and had played once for the Bombers in 2017.

Almost a year to the day since his injury, Laguda returned to the field for Doutta. Although he describes his rehabilitation as “fairly smooth”, the physical toll of returning to the field was always going to demand that little bit more.

“My body was very sore in my first match back,” the 21-year-old said.

“But I was better than I expected.”

However, the scorecard shows no signs of hesitation or rustiness from the 2015 Robert Hyde Medallist: three placings in the best across five matches was enough for Laguda’s name enter the mix for VFL selection.

“I spent the week going over the basic structures,” Laguda said of the week leading up to his selection, “just in case something did happen.”

And it did. If July 3 is a date that stands at the forefront of Laguda’s mind, then August 11 is the most recent contender to replace it. It was the night he returned to VFL after coach Dan Jordan broke the news that he would play against Geelong.

 “Because it was a night game, I couldn’t stop thinking about it all day,” Laguda confessed about his experience last Saturday at GMHBA Stadium.

“I couldn’t wait to get out there, and then once I did the nerves slowly went away as the game kept going on.”

Laguda played between the wing and backline in Essendon’s 28-point loss to the Cats, finishing with 11 touches and – just as importantly – a clean bill of health.

“The best part was getting around the boys again, just playing footy and really enjoying it,” he said.

Essendon will play Footscray at Windy Hill in round 20 this Saturday from 12pm.