COMING back from the first major injury of his career, simply getting through his first game was not enough for Brisbane Lions utility Brent Staker.

The 27-year-old played three strong quarters in his comeback match from LARS surgery against Geelong last Sunday, but had to watch on as big Cat Tom Hawkins cut free in the last quarter.

With the Lions holding a narrow advantage at the final change, Staker could do little as Hawkins took three marks and kicked two goals in the opening minutes to push the Cats clear.

It didn't sit well with the former Eagle and he quickly turned his attention to preparing for Saturday's match against North Melbourne.

"It was my first game back. Last season I played some good, consistent football and I wanted to come back in and play like that straight away and realistically you're not going to," he said.

"You've got to learn the pace of the game. Things like body-work, and fatigue under pressure was probably evident in the last quarter.

"I was out-marked in a few contests, which I was disappointed with. Hawkins is a big, strong boy and when he has that confidence, he's hard to contain and he got me with some good position.

"The two good things were, I got a full game under my belt and got through with no dramas with the knee, which was a great positive."

After 110 games for West Coast, Staker was traded to the Lions at the start of last season and the 196cm, 96kg utility was one of the club's most consistent players, finishing seventh in best and fairest voting.

But in round one against Fremantle, he suffered the knee injury that required LARS surgery.

Staker said it was not easy to deal with, although he was still amazed at the speed of the recovery.

"I've been injury free and injection free for so many years, I've been lucky," he said.

"The way I tackled it was more of a challenge. I hadn't been injured before, I didn't know the mindset to fall into and didn't know much about rehab programs, so it was all a new challenge."

Just two weeks after surgery, Xavier Clarke - who was also going through LARS rehab - moved in with Staker and Pat Karnezis.

Staker was back running in seven weeks and said having Clarke to discuss the rehab with was a huge plus.

"I asked plenty of questions and he was really confident in what he was talking about and gave me lots of assurance," Staker said.

"We'd always chat about it and it was a good gauge to see where I was compared to him because he had no dramas with his knee.

"The thing me and Xavier spoke about is when you're out there playing your first match back, your mindset is that you shouldn't be out here. You should be out here in 12 months time, not 15 weeks time, your mind is thinking this isn't right.

"But then you play another game and you're away."

Staker hopes that's just what happens on Saturday against the Kangaroos.

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