Scott Gumbleton today revealed he is taking a long-term approach to his rehabilitation from a serious back injury.
The No.2 selection in the 2006 National Draft says while a return to football this season has not been 100 percent ruled out, medical staff are taking a conservative approach to his rehabilitation and are progressing his recovery with the expectation of getting him fully fit for the 2010 season.
“I obviously want to come back and play but ultimately I don’t want to risk anything,"" Gumbleton said. 
""I’m just taking my recovery process week by week at the moment and will leave it to the medical staff and fitness staff to determine when I am ready.

“If I can play this year then it is a bonus but if not, I will focus on being 100 percent fit for next year.

“I don’t want to risk anything. I don’t want to go out there a little bit sore and run the risk of being injured again.”

Football operations manager, Paul Hamilton, said the club’s medical staff have not set a target date at this stage but are progressing his rehabilitation with the 2010 season in mind.

“At the moment we can’t give any strong indication of whether or not Scott will play football this year,” Hamilton said.

“There are certain hurdles he has to pass in order to progress his rehabilitation to the next phase. At the moment we are meeting each hurdle in a conservative manner and at the moment we aren’t putting a time-frame on it but are progressing his recovery with the 2010 season in mind.”

Limited skill training, swimming, conditioning and weights training fill the 20-year-old’s days as he works to get his body back to the condition it was in prior to the operation.

“At the moment I am participating in the skills training but I’m not doing any contact drills and drills that involve bending over or high agility stuff,” Gumbleton said.

“I am doing a lot of long distance running and stuff like that to rebuild my fitness base and keep my fitness base up.

“Weights training is also an important part of my rehab because it builds my core and muscles that were affected during my operation.

“Every now and then Knighter comes out to a recovery session and says 'you are doing well' and we sit down once or twice a fortnight and see where I am at and how I am going.”

The 197cm key-position player is maintaining a positive frame of mind despite the arduous journey back from injury.

“Being injured is not easy at any stage of your career but you just have to put your head down and do your best and hopefully you get back sooner rather than later,” he said.

“I guess the recovery process has its times where it is hard and there are other times when you feel improvement. It has a lot of ups and downs but I don’t want people to feel sorry for me, I just want to get on with my rehab.”

A small recovery group has paved the way for close friendships to be formed and Gumbleton admits the experience has made him closer to Jason Laycock and David Hille who are also overcoming long-term injuries.

“You become better friends with the players you are in rehab with because you obviously spend a lot more time with them,” he said.

“David Hille works especially hard so I try to follow his lead. He is always someone I can talk to and have a bit of a muck around with.

“It’s good having him in rehab with me because it makes it a lot easier.”