PORT Adelaide forward Brett Ebert has set his sights on the club's NAB Cup opener following his successful recovery from a LARS knee reconstruction.

Ebert had an artificial ligament inserted into his right knee after rupturing his ACL in the Power's win over Melbourne in round 21 of last season.

The 27-year-old was on a modified program before Christmas, but was cleared to resume full training last week.

He said he was desperate to prove his fitness to new coach Matthew Primus ahead of round one.

"The knee is feeling great and it's good to be back in full training because you feel a lot more part of the group. The first NAB Cup game is only a few weeks away and I definitely want to play," Ebert told afl.com.au.

"We've got a few younger guys pushing up, so being a bit older I've got to try and play well and keep them out of the side and also build some confidence.

"I feel confident at training, but it's a little bit different in a game."

Buoyed by teammate David Rodan's successful comeback from LARS surgery last year, Ebert said he didn't hesitate when the revolutionary procedure was offered to him.

"I did my knee on the Sunday afternoon and had the LARS surgery on the Monday night," Ebert said.

"It would have been tough having a traditional reconstruction because it would have meant a whole year out of the game. I'll be 28 at the end of this year and at the end of my contract, so I was in a pretty similar situation to David [in 2009].

"The surgeon was confident in LARS and we didn't really even talk about having the traditional reconstruction."

The surgery went as planned, but three months into Ebert's rehabilitation the viability of the procedure was questioned when Rodan's synthetic ligament failed.

Rodan was booked in for a second operation, but Ebert denied the ordeal had dented his confidence in his own rebuilt knee.

"It put a dampener on things a little bit, but I saw David the day after he had the second LARS ligament put in and the surgeon, who operated on both of our knees, came in and had a chat with us," Ebert said.

"The surgeon was still really confident in the procedure and said he'd had had very few failures in six years.

"It was tough on David having to go through the whole process again, but he's back running around and he'll be back in a similar timeframe to what he was last year, if not earlier."

Ebert started cycling just six days after his surgery, and lost six kilograms as a result of a rigorous program.

"I started out with the bike seat up two inches higher than normal so I didn't have to bend my knee as much and I was riding flat out at home," he said.

"I lowered the seat gradually as my leg got stronger and that was like a little challenge for me ... a gauge of how I was going."

Ebert hoped his new weight would help his endurance, particularly ahead of the AFL's introduction of a three-man interchange bench.