WHEN Fremantle tagger Ryan Crowley was told he hadn't broken his right foot after the round six western derby, he thought that was good news.

What emerged, however, was a complicated torn ligament injury that ended his season and was compared to that suffered by Hawthorn defender Trent Croad, who hasn't played since the 2008 grand final.

Crowley's recovery has been decidedly better than Croad's and more than six months on he is shining at Fremantle pre-season training, leading the endurance time trials for the third straight week on Monday morning.

The 25-year-old said he couldn't be happier with the state of his foot and is hoping to be ready for round one, 2010.

"That is definitely the aim and I couldn't see why not at the moment," Crowley said from Fremantle Oval on Monday.

"Probably the last month I've been fully up and going, I've been able to go at 100 per cent. It's been slow increments over the last couple of months.

"The foot's fantastic. I couldn't be more happy with it."

While Crowley has been Fremantle's stand-out runner this pre-season, he hasn't joined in full ball work and doesn't expect to for another fortnight.

But as the side's No.1 run-with player, he said returning to training in good physical condition had been a priority and was the reason he was streaming ahead in the time trials.

"That's a big part of my game, my fitness. That's my strength, so I've got to make sure that it's up to standard," he said.

"Being a lower limb injury it was hard to do a lot of running last year, so I wanted to come back in good nick.

"I haven't been able to run for about six months with the main squad, so it's been good to get back and amongst the boys.

"I did a bit of running in the break for the simple fact that for the majority of the season I hadn't done much running."

Crowley said injuring his foot so soon after completing a gruelling 2008 pre-season was the toughest thing to stomach, but he managed to have an impact from the sidelines.

"I did a bit of work with Matty de Boer, who was doing the role I vacated," he said. "I helped him out and talked tactics and that sort of stuff, which was good."

Having midfield teammate Rhys Palmer sidelined alongside him also helped Crowley get through the rehabilitation, and the pair is preparing for a summer of competitive endurance testing.

"Rhys is a really good runner and I'm sure we'll have some really good battles over the pre-season," he said.