CHRISTIAN Petracca is assisting the Melbourne recruiting department as he recovers from a season-ending knee injury.
The second player selected in last year’s NAB AFL Draft, Petracca said he was helping out national recruiting manager Jason Taylor, watching some elite juniors coming through the ranks.
“Jason Taylor – I’ve been under his wing a little bit and he’s taken me to a few TAC Cup games,” he told Dee TV.
“I’ve just watched a few players from there.
“During the week, I’ll [also] do a little bit of oppo (opposition) scouting with [manager of football operations] Josh Mahoney and [pro scout] Kelly O’Donnell – anything I can to gain my general knowledge of football.”
Petracca said he had experienced some mixed emotions over the past month, adding that it had been “pretty hard” watching the NAB Challenge matches. Still, he was determined to remain upbeat, despite being sidelined for 2015.
“It’s been hard, but I’ve had all of the family support. The club has been awesome – the doctors, physios and the players have been really good to me. They’ve been cheering me up. I’m a pretty positive kid in general, so it’s not that hard to get me up and about,” he said.
“It’s not bad at the moment – I’m just trying to get back into the swing of things, but it was hard at the start. It’s been four weeks now since post-surgery. At the start, it was pretty frustrating watching the boys train.
“I’ve started my rehab and I just wanted to get back into a routine, rather than sitting on the couch, so it’s good to get back into a routine.
“The last few weeks I’ve done a lot of spin bike [sessions], swimming and some work in the gym three days a week, so it’s been pretty full on, but hopefully it repairs pretty well.”
Upon reflection of the incident, Petracca thought it was a hyperextension of his knee.
“I pushed off my opponent as I went for the ball and I tried to push off my knee – my left one – and it gave way,” he said.
“It’s pretty annoying because I’ve done that action probably 1000 times – and it was just the once off.
“I got the scans about half an hour later – and you never want to hear the word ACL – so it was pretty daunting. But it’s a new challenge in my life and I’m ready to accept it.”
