INJURED Bomber Andrew Welsh is aiming to return to football by June and resume with the senior side before the mid-season bye after breaking his leg and dislocating his ankle.
Welsh suffered the injury when he was tackled by Irish rookie Michael Quinn in Essendon’s intra-club match two weeks ago.
Taken from Whitten Oval by ambulance, Welsh had the bone in his leg pinned at Melbourne's Epworth Hospital that evening.
"I think if everything went perfectly and the swelling comes out fairly quickly, before the mid-season break I could be back playing footy," he said from Windy Hill on Friday morning.
"So I’m looking at setting a goal that at the start of June I might be able to get a couple of games in and hopefully be back by the mid-season break in the seniors."
Welsh's plaster cast was removed on Wednesday and he will now sport a moon boot for the next month.
The 26-year-old is already feeling frustrated, heightened by the progress he'd made throughout a strong pre-season.
"Especially coming off the back of last year, I really wanted to build on my fitness and to get through a pretty solid pre-season where I didn’t miss a session," he said.
"To do an injury like that in the first intra-club match was definitely frustrating."
Welsh has reluctantly viewed the footage and says his first thought of the injury wasn't the pain, but the disappointment of missing games.
"I've had a brief look at it. I don't like looking at it too much. It doesn’t look too good. I knew as soon as I did it and held it in my hand I thought, 'This isn’t good'," he said.
"The first thing I thought about was how long would I miss. The second thing was the pain."
The midfielder has been limited to the couch since his surgery and says the idle lifestyle doesn’t suit him.
"I’ve been smashing the DVDs and the Guitar Hero ... after a couple of days you start fighting the demons and start thinking about things you shouldn’t be thinking about," he said.
"I’m just glad the last couple of days I’ve been able to get out a bit. I’ve had my girlfriend [support me], she’s been great over the last couple of weeks.
"It is hard, you can’t really do anything. You get up and go to the kitchen to get something to eat and your leg throbs. She’s been driving me around and looking after me."
Welsh is hoping to serve as a mentor to Essendon's youngsters while he is sidelined.
Dream Team watch – Andrew Welsh is rated a $338,800 midfielder in Toyota AFL Dream Team 2009.