Sidelined since tearing the lateral meniscus in his right knee in January, Bastinac ran again for the first time, on Monday.
As you'd expect, Bastinac eased himself back into it, running just 12 40-metre repetitions, which he supplemented with some additional leg-strengthening work on a kick scooter.
Nonetheless, when Bastinac spoke with afl.com.au at Aegis Park on Friday his excitement at being one step closer to playing again was evident.
"I was pretty nervous heading out there because I didn't really know what was going to happen because I hadn't run for that long," Bastinac said.
"My right knee felt good but all the muscles around it felt a bit weak [during the session] because they haven't really had much impact through them in the last 12 weeks.
"When you're doing your rehab you think, 'Is this ever going to end?' So to get on the track for the first time you start to get really positive about the end goal."
Bastinac said his knee had recovered well from Monday's session but his leg muscles had pulled up sore.
Well-spoken and quietly confident, Bastinac's appetite for hard work and desire to succeed are striking. He is your typical 19-year-old in a hurry.
One of the better first-year players in the competition last season, Bastinac played all 22 of the Kangaroos' matches, finished fifth in the NAB AFL Rising Star award and 10th in North's best and fairest.
He entered the 2011 pre-season hell-bent on laying the groundwork for an even better season.
Desperate to improve his already exceptional aerobic running, like former St Kilda great Robert Harvey he snuck in extra training sessions away from the club early in the pre-season. He then pushed himself to the limit at the club's November training camp in Utah.
But after returning from Utah feeling flat and lethargic, Bastinac said he realised he had been overtraining and had to rein himself in.
Despite his impatience to improve, Bastinac chose to have surgery to repair the lateral meniscal tear in his knee rather than having it removed. If he had gone with the latter option he could have been back in full training after four weeks.
"I'm going to miss maybe eight games but I'm happy to take that approach because it will add games onto my career at the other end," he said.
After four weeks in a knee brace, Bastinac's summer was spent swimming, riding stationary bikes and pumping weights.
The added strength and bulk he has built in his upper body through five-day-a-week gym sessions has been the "real positive" of his pre-season, he said.
Bastinac now faces another week of running slow strides - "just to get comfortable with running again" - but he will up the ante soon after that.
"I'll really start smashing myself with my running," he said.
"I just want to get as fit as I can again and really show I can still improve and become a better player than last year."
Bastinac said the mood around Aegis Park had been positive this week in the wake of last Saturday's 87-point loss to Collingwood.
"The boys are really up and about at the moment and really looking forward to taking on Fremantle (in round four)", he said.
"We've got a great opportunity now to come out and really prove to the competition we are a good side and we're going to be up there."
