BRISBANE Lions ruckman Matthew Leuenberger is second in the league for hit-outs behind North Melbourne's Todd Goldstein and is averaging 15 disposals per match - but numbers tell only half of his story.

After being taken by the Lions with the no.4 selection in the 2006 NAB AFL Draft, Leuenberger was quickly thrust into the main ruck role with persistent injuries to Jamie Charman.

But in 2008 he encountered his own troubles, needing surgery on a knee injury suffered in round 15 against Essendon that would ruin the rest of the season.

Just three matches into 2009 he faced more surgery, this time on a lateral meniscus tear in his other knee.

But worse was to come for the 204cm, 102kg giant from from East Perth.

Leuenberger suffered a post operation staph infection that laid him up in a Perth hospital for 10 days, stripped 11kg from his body, and ensured he would stay at his family home in the west for a month to receive antibiotics through a catheter.

"My weight and strength went back to what it was the day I was drafted, so it felt like I had to restart everything again," he said.

"I started off real slowly in the gym and things like hour-long walks was my conditioning. I'll never forget it. The weights I would normally warm up on at my full strength, I was struggling to lift as max reps so it was quite a challenge.

"Initially it was really frustrating because of the knee operations and then the staph infection. Once I'd overcome that and tried to just focus on getting right to come back and playing I just became determined and driven to get back."

Since making a return for the start of the 2010 season, Leuenberger has not missed a match, playing 36 on the trot.

While the likes of Dean Cox and Aaron Sandilands remain the benchmark in the competition, Leuenberger thinks he is slowly closing the gap, but wants to improve his consistency and eradicate what he sees as one poor match in every four.

But just being on the field every week is a victory.

"My first few years in the system I definitely missed more games than I played through injury, so it's a nice change and something I'm comfortable with," he said.

"I've done the past two pre-seasons and I've played every game and you learn so much from doing those two things."

And there's good news for Lions fans. With Leuenberger's contract coming to an end there's been plenty of speculation about his future, but the big ruckman has alluded to his desire to stay in Brisbane.

He has come through with a core group of players including Daniel Rich, Tom Rockliff, Jack Redden, James Polkinghorne and Mitch Clark among others, and is determined to help the Lions reverse their fortunes.

"We're all really good mates. We've come through the footy club around about the same time and we're all experiencing a difficult and challenging time for us, but I think we're all pretty driven to stay and hopefully one day come out on top."

Michael Whiting covers Brisbane Lions news for afl.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @mike_whiting