It would be an understatement to say that I am a little frustrated with my body at the moment.

After countless hours on the training track over the pre-season, my body was beginning to feel capable of withholding a full AFL season.

I had overcome surgery to my right knee which had kept me out for pretty much the second half of 2008 and was looking forward to playing some more senior footy this year.

I pulled-up really well after my first two games against West Coast and Carlton but felt a twinge in my left knee early in the first quarter of last Saturday night’s match against Sydney.

I immediately came from the ground to get it fully checked out by our physios, but before long it felt fine enough again so I returned to the field shortly afterwards.

It wasn’t until a ruck contest in the final quarter that the injury became serious and I was forced to spend the rest of the game on the sidelines. I could tell straight away after the knock that something wasn’t quite right – and it became even more obvious when I still couldn’t straighten my left leg the following day.

When I went under for my arthroscope on Tuesday morning, I presumed that the surgeon was just going to cut away some cartilage and I would be fine to play again in about four weeks.

However, I woke up with a huge brace on my knee and was surprised to hear that I would likely miss three months of footy.

Needless to say I was shattered.

Basically I had torn the lateral meniscus which provides a cushioning between the bones in your knee. While you can sometimes simply shave away some of the cartilage (cushioning) and recover a bit quicker – it’s only a quick fix and can cause more serious problems later on in your football career.

You hear a lot about ‘bone-on-bone’ issues with older blokes who have endured lingering knee injuries throughout their careers – and that is what happens when you don’t look after that cushioning.

Considering I am only 20 years old, it was definitely a smarter option to actually repair my lateral meniscus even though means spending a little bit longer on the sidelines now. This also means that I shouldn’t have any degenerative problems with the knee once it completely heals.

I guess it’s short-term pain for long-term gain.

Given the news is still fresh, it’s pretty hard to see the positives.

But at least I should still be back towards the end of the season – hopefully just in time for Finals.