TOM McDonald said he was “going really well” and edging closer to a return after a frustrating start to the year with a foot injury.  

The key tall, who has yet to play an AFL match this season, said he was now at the point where he was running with no pain.

“I feel really good running around on the field. I’m about to start some main training with the group, so all of the boxes have been ticked from a rehab point-of-view,” he told Melbourne Media.

“I’m close to playing, but more importantly, I feel confident that it’s going to be good for the rest of the year – hopefully. You can’t ever predict the rest of the season or the future. I’m feeling really confident and where it’s at.

“I’m glad we took the time to rest it properly and build-up slowly. I’m getting some positive news that it’s not too far away. The good thing is that I don’t feel any pain and I don’t feel like I’m carrying anything, so I’m really happy.”

McDonald said it had been “a fine balance” between resting and pushing the boundaries in regards to his return.  

“When I originally found out about the injury, I was probably a bit shocked at how long we originally thought I’d need to rest to get over it,” he said.

“On further diagnosis and realising that toes can be a little bit tricky to heal – they don’t heal as quickly as a sore finger does or something like that.

“I’ve come to terms that you’ve got to be patient and you don’t want to cause any long-term issues by pushing through foot pain. I’ve tried to be smart, but “I’ve pushed the envelope as well, got better and improved the feeling of it, which still maintaining some ability with my footy.

“Hopefully I’ll play soon and I’ll be back before I expected, but until I actually play, I’m not sure.”

McDonald said it was like a ‘turf-toe’ incident and he felt the problem occur during an inside drill.

“We were doing some tackling and contact work inside, in bare feet, and as we do all of our stuff in boots, I reckon my feet weren’t as conditioned to doing stuff bare foot,” he said.

“Your foot and toe gets jammed up a little bit more, so that’s where it started, but it started as a niggly toe, which AFL footballers have every week – a sore foot or a sore toe. You get your feet trodden on – but you don’t know if you’ve if you’ve just been trodden on or you get something wrong.

“In hindsight, I probably should’ve taken it a bit more serious, but things like this happen all of the time. They eventually take care of themselves when you do your recovery right.

“Then it just started to hang around and nag, and it wasn’t getting better, so that’s when I realised I might’ve done something a little more significant.”

McDonald’s durability has been a feature of his game in recent years, but he conceded “it’s been a lot tougher than expected”.

“Originally for round one, I turned up and I was just excited to watch footy. It was like ‘this will be fun to watch the boys’, but at the end of the day, my fingernails were bleeding because I’d bitten then down to the bone,” he said.

“When they went to Brisbane, it was better, because it’s not as nerve-wracking being there in person. It really shocked me, in terms of how difficult it was to watch. I’d played about 87 out of 88 in a row, so it was a big shock getting used to watching from the sidelines after having been in it for so long.”

But he acknowledged the Hawthorn game was difficult to sit through.

“It was frustrating against Hawthorn, because you watch it on the weekend and you see the first quarter and say ‘geez, we’re all over them’. But we didn’t reward ourselves and although I was confident we’d go on with it, and then it all disappeared,” he said.

“In the review, we saw why – we weren’t as disciplined as we should’ve been and we weren’t set-up as well as we should’ve been. We then lost confidence and went into our shells from there.

“On the day, it’s not easy to see from the stands and you’re wondering why things are going on and you’re not hearing the coaches’ messages.

“It’s frustrating and nerve-wracking and my fingernails are paying the price.”

The key defender-turned-forward still thinks he’ll play in attack when he returns.

“I don’t think I’ll play back – I haven’t done any work throughout the summer down back, and I’ve been training purely as a forward, with a bit of ruck, so I doubt it,” he said.

“If injuries happen, then possibly. If the coaches think it’s necessary, then sure, but they haven’t given me any indication of that at the moment.

“I’ll be preparing to play forward, but it may happen, although nothing at this stage has indicated that.”

But he was still open to playing in defence, if required.

“I’m still open to playing back, but I’ve spent the majority of the pre-season, until I was hurt, training as a forward, so you’d probably want to see how that goes, having put in some many hours doing that,” he said.

“Again, last year, I played in every position there was I reckon. I’m open to whatever it is and for me, I’m just more keen to get out there and play again, rather than sitting on the sidelines, and doing bikes and swimming.

“I’d rather get my conditioning on the MCG – and I’m just looking forward to playing. I’d doubt I’d play back, especially straight away, but we’ll see.”