Essendon captain Jobe Watson is optimistic of playing at least the final two games of this season after a meeting with his surgeon showed strong progress in his recovery.
The Essendon captain is continuing his rehabilitation program from surgery on a ruptured rectus femoris tendon suffered in Round 12 against Greater Western Sydney.
In a wide-ranging interview on this week’s episode of The Hangar, to air at 7pm Wednesday on FOX Footy, Watson revealed he is closing in on a return to football.
“At this stage I am looking to build up providing everything goes well and hopefully be playing some football before the end of this season,” Watson told The Hangar.
“I want to at least give myself an opportunity to play two or three games prior to the season ending.”
“If all goes to plan I would be hoping to play before a finals campaign so at least two or three games this season.”
Despite the initial disappointment of the injury the Bombers captain said he quickly turned his attention to doing all he could to return before the end of the season.
“It is part of the game and there is no point in pointing fingers,” Watson said.
“Injuries happen and it is about what I can do about it now to get myself feeling as strong and fit as possible.”
“If I do have the opportunity to come back and play AFL football this year can I be confident that the work I have done?”
“That was the mind set that I have taken into this rehabilitation.”
Watson returned to running two weeks after surgery and has since been focused on conditioning to make sure he is in peak fitness for an end of season return.
His plan is to return to the training track fully at least two weeks before running out for his first game back.
“It is very exciting, the idea of hope when you have a long term injury in regards to whether you are going to get back in season or post season is a fine line,”
“That hope drives you to get yourself back, to be strong and to be fit.”
“The mindset that I had with the medical staff was prepare me to play is if I was playing first up into an AFL final and that is how I have been training at the moment.”
Catch the full interview with Jobe Watson on this week’s episode of The Hangar from 7pm on Wednesday.
