GREATER Western Sydney co-captain Phil Davis will put the finishing touches on his recovery from a potentially career-ending kidney injury when he returns to the senior side for Saturday's game against the Brisbane Lions.
There'll be no easing back into senior football for Davis, who'll face the task of trying to keep an eye on Jonathan Brown
There were initial concerns Davis could lose his kidney and may not play again after sustaining the injury against the Sydney Swans in round one and spending eight days in intensive care.
But the 23-year-old got through his return game in the seconds last week unscathed and will make the step up at the Gabba, continuing to wear a specially designed brace to protect his kidney.
Davis says he will likely wear the brace – which is more for peace of mind than a necessity – for the rest of the season, but he has no doubt he is ready to return to the top level.
"It's been seven-and-a-half weeks of running, I've been able to do a fair bit of work in that time, and I'm pretty confident I can keep up with the rigours of AFL football," he said.
"It's funny, the opposition asked me during the game (in the NEAFL on Saturday) if I was sore, and I wouldn't have been out there if I'd been sore.
"I'm 100 per cent ready to go and feeling really good about my body."
The Giants' coaching staff was taken aback at Davis' fitness and his approach to contests in last week's big win over the NT Thunder.
"We were actually quite surprised with his game last week," coach Leon Cameron said.
"Not only just the contest, but his ability to run and cover ground was really, really good, and the GPS backed that up.
"We think he's ready and barring anything, unless he pulls up sore tomorrow, he'll be playing on Saturday night.
"It's a remarkable effort, but we wouldn't be taking any risks if we didn’t think he would be ready.
"It's inspiring for our footy club. He stayed positive the whole way through and three months later he's back playing.
"It's a great story."
GWS has produced some good form over the past two weeks in narrow losses to Hawthorn and Essendon.
Now the Giants face a Lions outfit that has won consecutive games against Carlton and the Western Bulldogs to show some real signs of life under first-year coach Justin Leppitsch.
Yet Cameron feels if his side can replicate its recent form, it is every chance of causing an upset.
"With sides coming up from underneath, there is always going to be fluctuations," Cameron said.
"Whether it's us, Brisbane, St Kilda, the Western Bulldogs, we're very young and it fluctuates at times just with the output.
"But Brisbane are playing a terrific brand of footy, and their effort the last two weeks has been fantastic.
"It's going to be a huge challenge for us, but we feel like our last two weeks puts us in a place to go up there and be confident that we can take them on."
