DANIEL Cross will make a swift recovery from a season-ending shoulder injury if the testimony of two men who know him well is anything to go by.

Western Bulldogs captain Matthew Boyd and former skipper Luke Darcy believe Cross is virtually peerless when it comes to professionalism, mental strength, work ethic and recuperative powers - qualities that will prove critical to Cross's rehabilitation after damaging the AC joint in his right shoulder.

The typical recovery period for such an injury is 12 weeks, which would extend to late October - just before the start of the Bulldogs' pre-season campaign. But Cross has a history of confounding medical experts.

It would surprise no one, least of all Boyd or Darcy, if Cross was ready to go during the off-season, a period in which he has traditionally forsaken rest in favour of an almost legendary personal training regime.

Further mishaps or complications aside, one thing is certain: he will be annoying hell out of the medicos to give him permission to train.

Cross and Boyd, best mates for the past decade, have long been the training pacesetters at Whitten Oval (in fact, it's believed both could compete in triathlons at a high level) and it would be with great reluctance that Cross would relinquish this status - even for a single pre-Christmas period; and even as a veteran with nothing to prove.

But that's just it: Cross is always trying to prove things to himself, and improve, and his proven method is to flog himself on the track. It's the essence of his being as a footballer.

When Darcy interviewed Boyd for AFL.com.au before his 200th game in round 16, the pair spoke in awe about Cross's dedication to the game.

Boyd recalled Cross defying medical opinion twice in the latter part of 2009.

After soldiering on through much of the season with fragments of floating bone causing enormous pain in his right ankle, Cross was forced to undergo late-season exploratory surgery, which revealed he would need a reconstruction at season's end.

Told his season might have been over, Cross cried (just as he did after realising the extent of his injury on Sunday) and then resorted to desperate measures. Overnight, he would hook up his ankle to an expensive ice-compression machine (which he'd bought on an overseas holiday), relegating his ever-supportive wife Sam to the couch.

It worked - he missed just two games before resuming where he left off in the finals.

That season, Cross still managed to finished runner-up in the Dogs' best and fairest to Boyd, who marveled at the time that his mate had "played with no ligaments in both ankles".

Boyd told Darcy last month: "(Cross) had two ankle reconstructions and everyone thought it was a six to eight-month recovery, but he was back training on day one of the pre-season. Amazing."

Not only that, Cross played every game the following season (2010) and the broad results were the same as the previous season: second in the best and fairest and another preliminary final appearance.

Little wonder Boyd rates Cross as the biggest influence on his career.

"It's pretty rare to be able to say that about a bloke who's your peer," he said. 

"People think I train hard but to see the things that he does and his ability to get the best out of himself, it's a fantastic influence."

Darcy regards Cross as a genuine pro's pro.

"I tell Daniel Cross stories all the time if people ever want to listen to them. I even tell them to my kids," he told Boyd.

"I remember in his first year we'd be walking through the carpark after a four-hour training session and 'Crossy' would be practising ground balls on his way to the car because he couldn't waste those 10 steps.

"He has taken (professionalism) to a whole new level. He's fanatical."

Boyd agrees.

"He's the quintessential elite athlete who does everything right," he said. "His diet is just impeccable - there's not an ounce of fat on him. I shower with him all the time so I get to see that!

"He doesn’t drink anything but water, doesn’t eat lollies, doesn’t eat chocolate. He's fully committed to (football) week in, week out. His recovery protocols are unbelievable."

After Cross's involuntary show of emotion on the bench on Sunday, some fans theorised that he knew something we didn’t - ie. that perhaps he'd been told he was in his final season and, as such, had played his last game. But coach Brendan McCartney was definitive when he told reporters at Whitten Oval on Tuesday that Cross "will be back".

Besides, the 29-year-old contracted for another season and his output this year has been solid.

Nonetheless, this setback is a major blow for both club and player. The battling Bulldogs need every leader they can find, and 197-gamer Cross will now have to wait until next season to play his 200th game.

Not that individual milestones have ever motivated Cross, as McCartney revealed on Sunday: "His first reaction to me was that he felt bad that he let us down, that he wouldn't be able to be out there and help his teammates, which says much about what sort of person Daniel Cross is."

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs.