Speaking to the media on his first day at his new home, Cousins said he was concentrating on living a healthy lifestyle again.
“There are no guarantees in football. I could get injured just like everybody else. I don’t necessarily judge going forward on how many kicks I get or how many games I play,” Cousins said.
“I’ll train exceptionally hard, leave no stone unturned and what happens after that is left up to the gods.”
Cousins also expressed remorse for hurting those closest to him, but said those same people had helped him find his way back to AFL ranks.
“I feel more sorry for friends and family that don’t necessarily deserve to have to deal with my issue on a public level,” he said.
“Dealing with addiction for family and friends is very hard privately but to deal with it publicly has been very stressful and painful for my family and friends at times but I’m lucky to have a fantastic network of people who have gone a long way to me being here today.”
The 30-year-old admitted he was still in the process of overcoming his drug addiction but said he felt he had made significant steps to recovering.
“I’ve used the last 12 months the best I can. I’m really proud of the time and effort I’ve put into my rehabilitation and I feel more confident now than I ever have that I can contribute both on and off the field and lead a normal lifestyle whilst trying to get the bests out of myself without the use of drugs,” he said.
“That’s the harsh reality of my affliction. It’d be nice to just dust myself off and leave it in the past. There is ongoing stuff I am required to do.”
The 2005 Brownlow Medallist said his full rehabilitation was far from complete and it wasn’t as simple is cutting off all contact from people who had been involved with drugs.
“I’m probably still very early on in my recovery and coming to terms with the changes in my lifestyle,” he said
“Contrary to public opinion and what the press like to say, [that] a lot of my associations with people that are untoward or that have caused me to be in this situation, it couldn’t be further from the truth,” he said.
“I am a drug addict, part of my rehabilitation and the program I’m in is addicts helping other addicts.
"It’s not like I’m not going to have contact with people who have been in the situation I have. It’s probably quite the opposite and that is the contact I require to keep myself on a level playing field.”
