Not surprising, really, given he had a bone growth the size of a golf ball removed from his pubic bone in March.
The growth restricted movement in his pelvis, which hampered his ability to change direction, go at full pace and play without pain.
The pain is now gone and in its place is a rediscovered enjoyment of the game.
"The fact I've actually been training now for the best part of eight weeks and running and running hard and doing a lot of lateral movement and those sort of things, it's actually almost a pleasure to run, to be honest," Grant said.
"As soon as they took that bone out, pretty much the day I walked out of hospital, which was the following morning, it was the best that it had been for three or four years."
Grant's AFL career will resume against the Kangaroos at the MCG on Sunday, 282 days after his last match, the 2006 semi-final loss to West Coast.
The 34-year-old said he was "pretty keen" to get out there again after coming through three matches with the club's VFL side Werribee unscathed.
"It's been a long time waiting," said Grant, who holds the Bulldogs' record for games played with 336.
As he approached the second half of the season refreshed due the enforced layoff, he left open the possibility 2007 might not be the last year of his career.
"What's going to dictate whether I continue to play for any length of time will be if I can get a kick out there. It's always going to be your form," Grant said.
Asked if he thought Grant could embark on a 19th season, coach Rodney Eade said "anything's possible".
"Chris, over the past two years, hasn't pre-empted anything like that until the end of the season," Eade said.
"I think probably at the start of the year he always said it was going to be his last season, but you never say never do you?"
Eade said Grant would be used in a variety of positions on Sunday.
"His experience and bigger body is going to help us," Eade said.
"The games at Werribee have helped him, to get his timing and to get his coordination right."
Eade was conscious Sunday's match would see the Kangaroos celebrate veteran Glenn Archer's 300th game, but did not believe the milestone would have a great bearing on the result.
"I think that sort of emotion and euphoria can probably last 10 or 15 minutes," Eade said.
"That's just another challenge for us but I've got no doubt we can cope with that pretty well."
