COLLINGWOOD midfielder Brodie Holland believes he must make a return to senior football this year if he's to continue his AFL career.

Holland, 28, has endured three seasons of achilles-related pain after initially injuring the foot in round 10, 2006.

Since then, he has been restricted to just 24 senior games (he was also suspended for six games at the start of 2007), with just one match this year, in round five.

The tough on-baller has been battling soreness since that senior clash against North Melbourne back in April, and has been unable to play at any level since.

With an aim to return to the VFL in two weeks, Holland knows time is short.

"There are no guarantees at all at the moment," he told collingwoodfc.com.au.

"I'm on a one-year contract because of the injury last year, and they just wanted to see how it came up this year.

"It was going great guns by round four or five, and I hadn't missed a game in the VFL and hadn't had any soreness, or just a tiny bit, if anything.

"If I can get back to that, which is how I'm feeling now and maintain that for the rest of the year … I'll have to play some good games at senior level though.

"If I can prove this achilles is fine and get back into the team for finals, it's probably the only way I'm going to save myself."

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