Injury-plagued Hawthorn forward Mitch Lewis is aiming for a mid-season return as his recovery from a devastating ACL injury continues.
Lewis, who kicked a total of 73 goals across the 2022 and 2023 seasons, has been encouraged by his progress after completing a training stint in the USA, working with a group of physiotherapists.
"The last couple of years haven't really gone to plan in terms of my own body but just over 7 months post-surgery now and all things are going really well," Lewis said to media on Monday ahead of Opening Round.
"I had a great trip over in the U.S doing a mini training camp out in Philadelphia. A lot of the things we did there I've taken back into my program now.
"A lot of it was building the fundamentals again, like patterns of running, change of direction, deceleration, making sure I'm loading the knee joint properly.
"I wasn't doing that for my entire life. It was just about getting those things down pat so I can give myself the best chance moving forward.
"I pretty much wasn't using my quads at all to stack onto my left knee, so that causes unnecessary load to go through that knee joint. When you look at the nitty gritty of it and see a specialist for those little things, you can uncover some certain errors. For me, it has caused a couple of injuries in the past."
Lewis understands having patience in returning from an injury this severe but is optimistic he can return to the AFL level this season and make an impact.
"Anything less than finals would be a disappointment... I'll be aiming for a mid-year return which will give me a chance to still have an impact on the season," Lewis said.
"[The return] will probably look like limited game through Box Hill and building my time up to return to availability with the AFL group."
The "young and sexy" Hawks are looking forward to the challenge and heightened scrutiny that comes along with the Opening Round, but Lewis iterated the importance of staying humble.
"[Last season] was really good but that was last year. It's a completely new season, what we achieved particularly in the second half of last year is over... everyone starts on zero points, there's an exciting element to that," Lewis said.
"We're very keen for the talk to be over and show what we can do on the field."
Lewis will be hoping to see his teammates make a statement victory to begin their 2025 season, with Hawthorn playing 2024 Grand Finalists Sydney at the SCG on Friday night.
