JACOB Weitering has confirmed he's aiming to return in Rounds 3-4 of the 2024 home-and-away season.

The key defender sustained a high-grade calf strain back in January, with the Blues taking a cautious approach to the reigning John Nicholls Medallist’s recovery.

The Blues will head to the Gabba for Opening Round in just 25 days, before hosting Richmond in Round 1 when football returns to Melbourne.

Speaking to 7 News Melbourne, the co-vice captain said timelines had recently become clearer in terms of his return date, with the Club to reassess during the Round 2 bye on how he is tracking.

“I’ll slowly transition in the next couple of weeks to some more on-ground stuff. The timeline is 6-8 weeks, and hopefully we can nail that.”

Weitering isn’t resting on his laurels as he ramps up his rehabilitation, assisting Aaron Hamill in mentoring the team’s backline.

In his own words, he wanted to make sure he was still impacting the team in a positive light while he was sidelined.

“I wanted to stay as present as possible, and some coaching opportunities were available. Defence is a big part of what I do, and I wanted to help out as much as I can.

With Carlton’s opening clash just a few weeks away, Weitering said he didn’t expect the team to have anything extra on the mind other than the task at hand when meeting with last year’s preliminary final adversaries in the first game of the new season.

“It’s a prelim, and it’s a loss, and it does hurt a little bit. But it’s a new season, we start on zero points and the boys will be pretty motivated to go and get a job done.”

For the full interview with Channel 7, watch the video in the player above.