Star Giants recruit Brett Deledio is targeting a late June return from the mysterious right calf injury that has sidelined him for the entire season, and cost him a chance to take on his old club Richmond on Saturday.
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Deledio circled this weekend's round-nine clash as soon as the 2017 fixture was released following his trade from the Tigers, but now has his eye on the June 24 game against Brisbane where he hopes to make his long-awaited GWS debut.
It's the first serious timeline Deledio has set since injuring his calf during the pre-season, and it comes after an uninterrupted series of running sessions, the longest streak he has had so far without a setback.
Should the calf remain trouble-free, Deledio will be due to rejoin his teammates on the training track in three weeks, and the post-bye clash against the Lions will look a serious possibility.
"We went really slow with it this time and built up the calf, made it really strong," Deledio said.
"We'll see how we go. I'm just itching to be out there. We're in a good place at the moment, but it's still slowly, slowly so hoping to be out there the week after the bye.
"I'm rapt to be out there running on the ground rather than be inside cross-training at the moment. Just yesterday [Wednesday] gone was the hurdle that we needed to jump to get over the hoodoo of sessions."
The exact nature of Deledio's calf problem still remains a mystery, but the damaging midfielder believes it stems from an injury to his left Achilles tendon suffered a few years back.
That had caused him to favour one side of his body, which led to several flare-ups to the back of his calf, about halfway up his right leg.
Existing scar tissue in the troubled area has slowed his progress, but endless rehabilitation has strengthened the soleus and gastrocnemius muscles around the injury which Deledio hoped would prevent any recurrence of the problem.
"A lot of it comes back to my Achilles on my left side which means I'm trying to offload that weight and it puts more strain through my right," Deledio said.
"We've been doing Barre classes, a lot of calf and glute work just to strengthen up my mid-section.
"I've been walking backwards on treadmills with weight vests and just calf raise upon calf raise on the Smith rack machine and seated calf raises with really heavy weight. Just trying to make it strong and hopefully bulletproof so we'll see how we go.
"[Overseas treatment] was an option. I'm not really that sure, I didn't want to get that many needles in my calf so I was a bit scared of that.
"We went to the AIS and saw Craig Purdam down there, the physio, and had a chat to him. He gave us a couple of ideas. Our physios at the club have been fantastic as well. We've spent a lot of time trying to come up with new things to get me back on track.
"I'm just confident that I can continue to build now and finally get out there and train with the boys and hopefully play in a couple of weeks."
Deledio, a former No.1 AFL Draft pick, spent 12 years at Richmond before signing a three-year deal at the Giants to chase a premiership.
His new club welcome back Toby Greene from suspension for the clash, and introduce Harry Perryman as their latest debutant. Stephen Coniglio will miss out with the ankle injury suffered last weekend, while Harry Himmelberg has been omitted.
"I keep in regular contact with a lot of the boys there [Richmond] just to see how they're going. This week it'll be a different feeling. It's a club you spend 12 years at, you're cheering for your mates, but you're cheering for our boys to get the win," Deledio said.
"It'll be a close game because they're playing some good footy."
