Andrew Walker took another definitive step forward in his bid to return to Carlton's line-up, playing a pivotal role in the Northern Blues’ win over the NAB AFL Academy at the MCG on Saturday.

Walker had his pre-season interrupted when the Carlton medical staff opted for the seasoned defender to have surgery on a pinched cartilage in his left knee in late February.

The surgery followed a procedure that saw the 28-year-old sidelined for the second half of last year.

After collecting 29 possessions through the midfield in just over three quarters of football on Saturday, Walker post-match spoke honestly of his road to returning to action.

“I’ve pulled up really well and there’s no swelling in my knee, which is the important thing,” Walker said.

“Considering I’ve only really been back on the training track for about three weeks, the body’s pulled up pretty well. The only thing that’s hurting is my lungs, but they’ll come good.

“Probably for the first time in a long time during the team meeting yesterday when ‘Webby’ (Northern Blues coach Luke Webster) was talking and even what time we had to play, I actually got a bit nervous.

“Because I haven’t really played since July last year, there were some nerves and butterflies, but it’s been good to come back on the MCG.”

Since Walker’s operation to remove fragments of cartilage in his knee back in July, the defender said his rehabilitation “hadn’t changed much in the last nine months”.

Now over a month and a half post-surgery, Walker says it’s been a week-to-week build-up of physical tolerance.

“Without me actually knowing, there’d been some damage to the cartilage seven weeks ago,” he said.

“I was trying to train and play with it, but when we had a look at it, there was a massive piece of that cartilage jamming the joint. Once that was cleared up, I’ve been able to step up the training loads and put some load back through the year.

“I think just being back on the training track with the boys in the last three weeks has been really important and gave me a lot more confidence going into (Saturday).”

Now passing the test of putting the knee through match conditions, Walker says he will meet with the coaching and medical staff to determine if he is available to put his hand up for selection.

“My game and fitness aside, it was all about getting a bit of run in my legs and my lungs,” Walker said.

“I think I did that (on Saturday) and whether it’s VFL or AFL, I’m just rapt to be back playing footy.”