KEY ADELAIDE forward Taylor Walker can finally see the finish line to his knee rehabilitation.
Walker ruptured his ACL against Carlton in round five last year and the subsequent knee reconstruction has sidelined him since.
The 23-year-old's recovery has been arduous and even involved a trip to the US in October where he met with renowned knee expert Bill Knowles.
With the 2014 season just over a month away, Walker told AFL.com.au he could now picture his return.
"They won't make a silly decision but I'm slowly starting to see a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel, it's been a long nine months," Walker said.
"I'm slowly starting to do a little bit more competitive work and joining in with the group.
"Once we start doing all of that I'll do about four to six weeks of really hard pre-season training and make sure I'm really positive, which I am with the knee.
"Over the past nine months we've done all the work we can."
The Crows forward spoke at Adelaide Arena on Sunday as a member of the Cadbury Super Team, where he was joined by a host of fellow superstars including Dale Thomas, Adam Goodes, Sam Mitchell, Jack Riewoldt, Nic Naitanui and Jonathan Brown.
Walker said his road to recovery has had its speed bumps and he had questioned how the injury would affect his ability.
The club remains confident he will return to senior football by round five.
Walker reiterated that if he's set to play earlier than that, a decision would be made between the coaching staff, doctors and himself.
"I'd be lying if I said I didn't have any doubts, especially when you're by yourself training," he said.
"But we've got great support staff around me so I'm really confident in getting back to where I used to play.
"When it comes closer to the time [of a return] we'll sit down as a group and make a good decision.
"I'll be very keen to play when I'm ready, they say 12 months … if I'm ready to play early we'll have to sit down and have that discussion."
