It’s 12 months to the round since the courageous midfielder played his last game of football and come Saturday, that long drought will be broken.
“I’m excited and nervous at the same time,” he told kangaroos.com.au.
The South Australian had a knee operation shortly after returning from the club’s training camp in Utah in December last year and will run out with the North Ballarat reserves in the VFL in Craigieburn.
“I’ve got to test the knee out and there’s nothing like actually playing to do that. I’ve been training for about seven weeks now and it’s felt really good which is great.
“I’ll start in the reserves with North Ballarat and really push hard to get into the seniors in the coming weeks. It’s important now that I play some good footy and get some reward for all the work I’ve done in rehab. Even the thought of VFL finals is giving me some encouragement and motivation as it will potentially give me more opportunity to play as much footy as possible before the year’s out.”
It’s been a long year for the 24 year-old but no-one can ever doubt his dedication and professionalism during rehabilitation. Always upbeat and positive, Lower is the quintessential team-mate.
“In what’s been an incredibly frustrating 12 months for Ed, but he’s one of thorough professionals and his dedication to rehab has been second to none,” North coach Brad Scott said.
Lower began training intensely just over seven weeks ago and has been ticking off the days until he could come off the long term injury list.
“I have been getting through really well without any pain.
“When I first did my knee, I thought I’d be back a lot quicker and obviously didn’t realising the extent that the recent operation was going to keep me out for. I was always hoping I’d get back sooner rather than later and am just rapt to be running out again on Saturday,” Lower added.
“When you’ve had a few injuries like I have, you always back yourself to get back quickly, but sometimes there are things that are out of your control and you have to listen to all the experts around you and rely on their advice. They know what’s best.”
A premiership player and best and fairest winner for North Ballarat, Lower says he has plenty left to offer.
“I’m really confident with the knee now going forward and know that I have a lot of footy in me at the highest level.
“Touch is something you always worry about before coming back from an injury, but I’ve been doing heaps of stationary skills in rehab so it’s should be fine. There have been a few boys in the rehab group since the start of the year and we all had the chance to get a lot of touch work done and keep our skills up.
