MIDFIELDER Dom Tyson says he learned to deal – and play with – a serious finger injury in 2014, which he had operated on at the end of the season.

Tyson injured it against Richmond in round nine and against the Brisbane Lions in round 19 and said it was just a matter of getting on with the job at hand.

“It was painful at the time. It goes numb for about a minute or two and then you’re not too confident about sticking it anywhere where it could get popped out again,” he said.

“Mentally, it will be good just knowing that I don’t have to worry about going for a tackle and getting my finger jammed somewhere or if I really attack an aerial ball, it’s not going to cause me to pop my finger out.

“It’s probably just something that will help me to play at 99 per cent rather than 95 per cent.”

Tyson said he didn’t let the injury hinder him on match day.

“It didn’t really affect me game day, it’s just more if it did pop out, that’s when it would affect me a little bit,” he said.

“It probably affected my mindset tackling and on the days that it popped out, I just didn’t want to jam it up. It was good that I could get through the year and then get it done after the year so I didn’t have to miss any games.”

But Tyson has since had surgery in the off-season to correct the injury.

“I’ve had a couple of dislocations throughout the year. It’s got caught in a couple of jumpers which just flicks it out and then the doctor pops it back in, which is pretty painful so we thought that we better get it cleaned up at the end of the season,” he said.

“I went in and the surgeon put a wire in there.

“It’s nothing serious but just something that we had to get on top of ... when we had the chance.”

Now, Tyson is eager to make the most of his pre-season, after injury hindered his first at Melbourne.

“It’s exciting. Individually, I haven’t had a full pre-season yet so if I can stay healthy and train from November all the way through to round one and be smart and don’t over-do it and get a few more miles in the legs, hopefully I can improve on this year and get better,” he said.

“It still feels like I’ve got a lot to learn and I certainly don’t feel like I’ve established myself in any means yet. I feel like I’ve got to keep improving and improving myself on game day. I’ll be hoping to get a bit fitter and a bit stronger again and go from there.

Although Tyson shows genuine leadership potential, he said it’s not something that dominates his thoughts at the moment.

“It’s not something that I have immediate aspirations for at all,” he said.

“I think that Nathan [Jones] is doing a fine job with Jack [Grimes] and there are blokes in the leadership group that are younger than them, so it’s not something that I would officially want to have in the immediate future.

“I feel like I’ve settled in at the club but I’m still learning the tricks of the trade in terms of feedback. I certainly haven’t mastered my preparation before I can start helping others yet. It feels like you’ve got be fully on top of it before you can start impacting others.

“I’m still learning plenty off guys like Crossy (Daniel Cross) and Jonesy and Bernie [Vince] as well, so I’m by no means thinking about that yet as I’m just trying to learn as much as I can for now.”