Walker, forced from the field in the opening quarter of the practice match against Brisbane at Maroochydore on March 10, has finally overcome a quadriceps injury in his right kicking leg and is simply itching to get out there.
“I can’t wait really,” Walker said this week. “The pre-season seems to have taken forever because I’ve had to add another six weeks to it, but the timing’s good because we have a few injuries, so hopefully I can add a bit to the side.”
Walker said he had been labouring with what was later identified as tendonitis in the quadriceps since the early pre-season sessions of 2012. He believed that problem was brought on by lack of hip strength, “which meant my quad was having to take all the work of kicking”.
“You see players go down with osteitis pubis, soft tissue injuries and hammies, a lot of which is caused by the actual hip joint not being strong enough in itself,” he said.
“That’s what was happening with me - I was basically overloading my quad with my kicking motion because I didn’t have a lot of range in my hip.”
As a consequence, Walker pursued a range of options including consultation with Craig Purdam, the Head of Physical Therapies at the Australian institute of Sport in Canberra.
“He (Purdam) had never seen that type of injury in terms of where it was,” Walker said. “It’s actually a long-jumper’s injury, which makes a little bit of sense too. It’s about ten or 11 weeks ago now, but I still remember going on a few strong leads and starting to feel it as I’d jump for marks.
“We put a 6-8-week program in place and we’re at the 8-week mark now, so I’m back to playing.”
The added good news is that Walker doesn’t have to modify the way he plays.
“The program was such that when I came back I’d be able to play at 100 per cent full strength, rather than come back at 60 per cent and play around it, which you can sometimes do with shoulders and the like,” he said.
“I try to play at 100 per cent intensity rather than 90 per cent. I need to be at 100 per cent to play, which is why this program was put in place.”
Now on the cusp of game number 128 in his ninth season as a Carlton footballer, Walker said he’d be lying if he said he hadn’t pushed for an earlier return.
“Naturally I’ve got a footballer’s mind, so I was trying to get back as soon as possible,” he admitted. “It’s a credit to the (rehab) guys downstairs because I’ve been bugging them for the past three weeks saying ‘I’m feeling right’ and I’ve even been popping into ‘JC’s’ (High Performance Manager Justin Cordy’s) office, but he’s been sticking to his emails while I’ve tried to talk him around... and I don’t know that he was listening.
“I’d like to say it’s been easy sitting out while they (the players) have been winning, but it probably makes it harder because I’d rather be out there with them celebrating. You want to be happy for them, but at the same time you want to be out there with them . . . and what this does is make me come back to football a lot more excited because of how well each line is linking together.”
Fremantle at Patersons Stadium before a hostile audience is indeed a daunting prospect - even more so for a player on the cusp of his first appearance for the football calendar year.
Not that Walker is particularly perturbed with the lack of lead-up games. As he said, “I’ve been going to the extreme to keep my fitness base where I had it in the pre-season and I actually do feel a lot stronger in my hips and generally a lot more powerful”.
“At the minute I’m running as well as ever and I’m feeling great,” Walker said
