A recurring shoulder injury that saw the joint become dislocated regularly threatened his season before it had even started, but major surgery a month ago is already yielding promising results and has given the 22-year-old renewed optimism for the 2009 campaign.
"This stupid right shoulder of mine, it just wouldn't stay in, but the surgeon has told me that you'd basically need a tractor to pull the thing out now," Walker says.
"If I can go out [and play] with those words then I'm going to be as confident as ever with it.
"I'm only about one or two weeks off training again which is a great result. In my mind I'd like to be back playing in two or three weeks, but I know the doctors won't let me do that. Worst-case scenario it's probably eight weeks which is a lot sooner than was first thought.
"We thought it was going to be the whole season early. I don't want to put too much pressure on myself to get back, but I know in my heart how well the boys are doing and I'd love to be a part of that again."
Since the shoulder was initially damaged in a seemingly innocuous off-the-ball wrestle with Hawthorn's Jordan Lewis in 2007, Walker has undergone two cartilage anchoring procedures, but doctors decided to take a different tack this time around.
"I had a bone graft done which I've never had before," Walker explains.
"What they do is take a piece of bone from a different part of your shoulder where it's not a contact surface area and they pull that up onto the front of the capsule which is where you're most vulnerable to dislocations.
"So basically they put a 3cm piece of bone on the front of my shoulder to give me a bit more depth there because I've actually got pretty shallow shoulder joints.
"They try the cartilage anchoring first because you can get a full range of motion back, but this operation does restrict you a little bit, which is why I haven't had it done before."
Teammate Cameron Cloke has undergone the same procedure and Walker has drawn a lot confidence from discussions with him coupled with the results he's already seen and felt for himself.
"Surprisingly enough I've found that it's really freed up and I've finally got a good sense that the joint's actually 'sucking in' really hard again," he says.
"I looked at some of the blokes that have had it done and asked myself, 'Well, have they really lost that much range?' Clokey had it done and he still rucks for us and throws himself around and it doesn't seem to restrict him that much.
"As he said, and as I've already found out, you can get back into it pretty quick. You don't have to wait for muscles to start switching on or cartilage to strengthen up.
"It's a bone graft so basically you just need to give it two weeks and then it's up to you to start smashing into it with the physio on the mobility side of things."
The former No.2 draft pick won't actually be 'smashing into' the joint just yet, but is back running and is confident of joining in contact drills with the main group in about a month.
He's ecstatic with the situation he finds himself in now which is in stark contrast to how he felt following his latest, and hopefully last, dislocation during a VFL practice match with the Bullants.
"I did it in the first 20 seconds of the game, but it had already slipped a couple of times before that," he says.
"I was just trying to see if I could play through it. I ran out there and dislocated it and then ran back to the bench and got them to pop it back in. I thought to myself 'I've just got to test it here'. If it popped out again then I knew I'd have to have another operation.
"I was pretty down, but I'm pretty excited about it all now. Hearing the words of the surgeon and knowing what's been done has really refreshed me mentally with regard to my football.
"When you've been injured for that long you start to think whether it's all worth it, it's just so tough to get back into it, but hearing those words and being back with the boys has really refreshed me."
Walker spent the two weeks following the surgery convalescing at his family home in Echuca, which he credits with restoring him to high spirits.
With the side playing with renewed optimism in 2009, Walker is determined to play a role in what he hopes will be a late-season push into what he would be his first finals campaign.
"Hopefully I'll be coming back at just the right time and might be able to have a bit of an impact."
