THERE is a photo of James Hird holding the 2000 premiership cup in the hallway of surgeon Julian Feller's consulting rooms in Epworth Hospital. It's signed, "Without your help this would not have been possible."

Keep walking and there is a message from Collingwood's Paul Licuria, who writes, "Thanks for giving me the opportunity to live my dreams."  

'Eight-month recovery' the next frontier for knee reconstructions

There are framed messages from Magpies Sav Rocca and Lee Walker, and Australian aerial skier Alisa Camplin, who gifted her 2006 Olympic bronze medal to Feller after he helped her recover from a knee reconstruction in time to compete in Torino.   

After completing hamstring surgery on Australia captain Michael Clarke 15 weeks before he lifted the World Cup at the MCG, Feller might soon have some new memorabilia on the wall.

One thing is clear: for sportspeople who go under Feller's knife – many of them prominent AFL footballers – he is one of the most significant people in their careers.

For Feller, who started private practice in 1992, Hird's triumphant return in 2000 from multiple foot surgeries was his most satisfying to watch.

"There's footage of him in 1999 breaking down early in the season and we re-operated and tried to get him up for the end of the season," Feller told AFL.com.au.  

"He got pain right at the end of the season or in the finals and Carlton knocked off Essendon by a point in the preliminary final. 

"The next year they came back and Essendon won the Grand Final, so that was really satisfying.

"I don't know what makes one more satisfying than the other. You watch them all really closely when players are coming back and your heart is in your mouth a little bit."

Feller completed his training in 1990 and went into practice with legendary sports knee surgeon John Bartlett, who had strong links with both Essendon and Collingwood.

One of his first operations was an arthroscope on Magpies great Peter Daicos.

"I remember being quite nervous beforehand. As a procedure it's not that big a deal, but it's who you're doing it on at times," he said. 

"I did that because John was away.

"Alan Richardson at Collingwood was someone else a long time ago, and Lee Walker could have been the first anterior cruciate ligament I did." 

The start to this year has been busier than most for Feller, who was back in theatre not long after his own round of major back surgery.  

He has completed a knee reconstruction on prized Melbourne youngster Christian Petracca, a major hamstring operation on North Melbourne midfielder Nick Dal Santo, and medial ligament surgery on Geelong premiership hero Jimmy Bartel.

As of this week, he had completed 12 operations on AFL players, with Richmond's unlucky midfielder Nathan Drummond the latest after suffering a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in his first match.

For St Kilda champion Lenny Hayes, who recovered from a second knee reconstruction in 2011 to win the Saints' best and fairest in 2012, Feller was "a natural choice".   

James Hird was one of Julian Feller's success stories. Picture: AFL Media

"When they said 'knee' the club pretty much said his name straight away," Hayes told AFL.com.au.  

Hayes chose to have a patella tendon graft for his second reconstruction, while former teammate Luke Ball chose a hamstring graft.  

It's a choice that divides players, clubs and doctors, who all have their own preferences, and Feller never tries to persuade a player either way if they're fixed on one.

When it comes to a LARS graft, however, his views are black and white.

"About the only time I could imagine myself using one in an AFL player would be someone towards the end of their career playing in a team that looks like having a serious crack at the finals, and it might be their last opportunity to have a go," Feller said.

His concerns are around the need for the rest of a player's knee – including cartilage and bruising to the bone – to recover.

If a player suffers the same injury again, he also believes a revision of a LARS procedure can be more complicated than a standard reconstruction.

While Feller will do LARS operations on regular patients who may need a quick return to work, he otherwise treats every patient the same. 

The only difference is the pressure to operate quickly and, in theory, speed up a player's recovery. Then there are the nerves when his patients run back onto an AFL ground.

This year, Daniel Menzel, Nathan Vardy and Jon Patton will be among the players he'll have a special interest in as they return after surgery.

"I don't get quite as anxious as I used to when they do come back, because the further into practice you get you've seen people come back successfully," he said.

"I'll probably go and watch a VFL game to see Dan play because that would be tremendously satisfying."