RECOVERING Roo Majak Daw has continued a week of happy milestones, announcing he and his partner Emily McKay are expecting their first child later this year.
Daw's good news comes the day after he ran over ground for the first time since suffering serious injuries in a fall in December.
Both Daw and McKay posted the news to their Instagram accounts on Tuesday evening, with McKay writing: "Pretty happy about our lil friend that's on the way. Baby Daw due this year."
On Monday, Daw's family, friends and teammates were on hand to watch him reach that milestone and were suitably buoyant, similar to when he ran on an AlterG anti-gravity treadmill in mid-March.
The 28-year-old, who sustained significant hip and pelvic injuries, has slowly increased his physical exertion and was taking shots at goal and practising his marking at training last week.
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Daw expressed his delight to nmfc.com.au about the latest step in his recovery before heading onto the Arden St surface.
"I'm pretty excited and I'm not going to lie – I've been waiting for this for so long," Daw said.
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"I maybe couldn't sleep last night because of this."
Daw started with some short strides before progressing to running laps, with North Melbourne's head physiotherapist Matthew Turnbull saying he had "exceeded all expectations".
However, the defender is still a long way off returning to the field competitively.
"We're extremely happy with what he's been able to achieve in this time," Turnbull said.
"But we also acknowledge he has a lot more steps in this rehab process to still get through before he plays.
"He's returned to running, now he needs to recondition and turn to the conditioning guys to go through the next step."
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The plan is for Daw to continue his return-to-running stage in the next fortnight, on a one-day-on, two-days-off schedule before he moves into more football-specific training.
"I think it's right to say we've been quite meticulous in that process," Turnbull said.
"Every time we give Maj a new stimulus, it's followed up with a close examination of the pain and his range of strength parameters and what they're doing.
"That's going to need to continue, given the new injuries we've seen and also his past history with injuries, too."
