Recovering from a shoulder reconstructionhe underwent four months ago, Rusling remembers his debut against Hawthorn in round10, 2005 like it was yesterday.
“I was so nervous in the days leading up toit,” the young Magpie tells collingwoodfc.com.au.
“When I went out for the warm up, it was abit surreal. I was starting on the ground, which was good because I would havebeen too nervous if I had to sit on the bench. I remember having to keep myselffrom looking up into the stands.”
A spate of injuries, starting with a brokencollarbone in his debut season, has limited Rusling to just 11 games since then– and this weekend he’ll once again he’ll be confined to the stands.
“It’s very frustrating to know that if thingswere different, you could be playing,” he says. “I’m only about five weeks away and doing fulltraining but I just can’t play, which makes it even worse.”
“With the shoulder, rehab is quite repetitive.You’re just doing stuff just try to get it stronger. I just have to accept thatfor the rest of my career I’m going to have to … look after it so it’s justsomething that I have to deal with. It does do your head in a little bit.”
Some players have fallen off the railsduring rehab, and Rusling says the willpower to keep working without reward isone of the most difficult things about the process.
“You’ve just got to pick the people youhave around you to keep you on track,” he says.
Rusling lives with teammates Nick Maxwelland (rookie) Sharrod Wellingham, who he says “have been very supportive of whatI’m going through”.
“You can’t be on the straight and narrowall the time because of your injury but you try your best. Every now and thenyou might slip but there’s always someone around to pull you back into line.”
“Mind you, I haven’t got out of doinghousework because of the injury. As soon as I was out of the sling I had to getback into it.”
With his side in the top four and in greatform after a win over last year’s grand finalists, Rusling admits it will bedifficult to make his way back into the side.
“You do look at where you’re going to fitin but I’m just happy to see the boys doing well,” he says. “It’s a healthyenvironment at the club when there’s competition for spots.”
While some of the league’s great players chalkup big milestones, Rusling’s goals remain a little more modest.
“Robert Harvey’s [350-game milestone] is along way away. I don’t think I’ll ever get there. I’ll be very happy if I getto 50 at the moment. It’s not something I really look at. I just want to getback out playing.”
