Andrew Welsh has a date marked clearly in his mind and on his calendar - June 19 - the day he hopes to be ready for an AFL return after breaking his leg and dislocating an ankle in an intra-club match earlier this month.

 

""That will be four months (since the injury), which should be the main time. I'll have to get a couple of (VFL) games in before that time but hopefully the boys are going well and its going to be difficult to get back in,"" he said smiling.

 

""I suppose that is going to be the biggest challenge, having to come back from an injury, it’s usually just a couple of weeks so I’ll need to get real fit again. It's going to be the hardest thing watching the boys out there.""

 

 

For someone who loves an active life, an injury like Welsh suffered is hard to take but, he says, the bushfires across Victoria gave him perspective.

 

""The main time of that (the fires) was when I was in hospital, and I was lying there and got to have a fair look at what was going on, and I felt a bit helpless watching guys from other clubs helping out. You can donate money, but you just want to go out there and help out. It puts it into perspective, I’ve got a sore leg, but there are people out there who have lost everything,"" he said.

 

Welsh was injured in the third quarter of Essendon's first intra-club match of the season after what had been an excellent on-field performance to that point.

 

""I felt pretty good, was running pretty well and everything and just got tackled by Quinny (Michael Quinn), and couldn’t move or stop anything, and then I just heard a massive pop and crack and I finished the tackle and I sort of sat up and looked at my foot and grabbed it in my hand and it was pointing the wrong way,"" he said.

 

""I looked over to the bench thinking you know you guys better get out here I need some help. I think David Hille was waving his hand. I’ve gone to push to get up, and I’m thinking this isn’t right, this isn’t normal, and Mark McVeigh grabbed my head and laid me back down and just said “don’t look at it, don’t look at it” And then everyone was around me, all the doctors.""

 

The 134 game veteran says the injury was simply bad luck and something that can happen during a tackle.

 

""I sort of fell back and my legs kicked underneath me, and the ligaments come out and that’s why the ankle popped and that’s why the bone broke,"" he said.

 

""At first I was in a bit of shock I was unsure about what was happening. People were all playing around getting me on a stretcher and was talking to Mark and he was like 'are you alright mate?' and I was like 'yeah, yeah, it hurts a bit' and then they carried me in. The pain was obviously quite sore, but I think it looked a lot worse than it really felt.""

 

Despite the initial shock, Welsh said as soon as he saw his leg, he knew he would miss a fair bit of football.

 

""The doc came out and he was keeping it a bit stable and I was saying 'how long, how long?' and I sort of knew that it wasn’t good. And he goes 'oh it will be a while but just wait till you find out the full extent',"" he said.

 

""After last season, I wanted to put in a bigger pre-season and my running was so much better, I dropped about a kilo and a half just weight that I didn’t need. So I was running well and it gets you into the whole pre-season and thenin the first hit out you can’t get over the line.""

 

The 26-year-old said his surgery went well and he is getting used to wearing a moon-boot.

 

""I had a plate put down the side, eight screws to hold in the plate and a couple of button stiches – because I snapped the ligaments, so the button stitch helps hold the ligaments to the bone.That means you can start your physio a lot quicker because they don’t take the screws out they leave them in there to stabilise the bone,"" he said.

 

""I was in hospital for five days- that’s the longest I’ve been in; usually if I have an operation I’m in overnight and home the next day. Five days was pretty tough, but I had a lot of the boys come in and had mates visit and Jason Johnson has a new food business he’s got going so he brought in these new packaged steaks which I could eat in the hospital, which was quite good, instead of eating their food. It was a bit of saviour. It was just good to have the blokes thinking about you, I guess.

 

""At first while you’re still in hospital it’s a bit surreal you don’t understand the full extent, you get home and you’re lying here and you lose contact with the world. I’ve been lucky; my girlfriend has been here all day every day. If it wasn’t for her the first couple of weeks would have been pretty hard, I go to the toilet and it’s the biggest hassle in the world. My leg would kill and you just feel useless.""

 

""Some people say it is a good time to do it and some say that it is a bad time to do it, well I’ve done it, I’ve done it, that’s it. There’s six weeks until Round 1 and by then I’m hoping to do a little bit of weight bearing walk/jog stuff, and then yeah, hopefully play a few games by the mid-season break with the two’s get a bit of fitness up and that’s the plan that’s if everything goes to plan – but not everything goes to plan.

 

""Scotty Lucas did this back in 1999, pretty much the same thing. So he’s been good to speak to and he’s been coming in a seeing me, so that’s been good. He missed the finals – he missed the prelim but he came back a bit early for it. And apparently it is common in soccer.

 

""I am a quick healer, touch wood, I’ve been pretty good. I broke my hand and was only out for a week. I think the main thing is the ligaments; the plate will help, but just giving them time to mend.

 

""Usually you just break the bone but that is why the bone popped out, but the ligaments snapped on the inside and that’s why it bent, and then the other ligaments snapped off. I did a good job of it!""

 

Welsh will become good friend with his television and knows he has a long, dull recovery ahead of him.

 

""Yeah, watching Entourage, I’ve got all the series. That’s been getting me through and watching DVD’s and one of my mates brought me guitar hero so that has been good. I watch a bit of MTV – some of the shows on that are outrageous; I don’t know how they put some of those on. It’s kept me entertained. And surfing DVDs and things like that.

 

""Otherwise I’ve just been sitting here being a sook to my girlfriend. Anything I’ve needed she’s just been here, took time off work,because I was useless here; I couldn’t do anything so she’s been good.

 

""I don’t think I’ve been in the house this much in the last two years I’ve been here. Even being able to get out and go and sit on the beach it’s hard so I’ve just been sitting at home.

 

""Knighta's been coming to the hospital, he said just to take the time to get it right. I still can’t do any active stuff until two weeks time until I get my next x-ray, but I’m looking at getting into Windy Hill next week and doing a bit of stuff on the stress ball sitting down and doing a bit of ball work that’s all I can do for a couple of weeks.""