Mitch Wallis has fallen back in love with football.

Although as the 24-year-old prepares to head up the race onto Adelaide Oval on Saturday night for game 100, he'd be forgiven if memories of darker times flash through his mind, if only for a moment.

To having his jumper and boots cut off of him on the surgeos table in those blurry and painful hours following his broken leg in July last year, through nine and a half months of rehab and recovery.

But tonight shouldn’t be about going over well-trodden ground, it should be a celebration of a young footballer rediscovering his love of a game that’s been a part of him all his life, a game that for a minute he feared had been lost to him.

''When you can’t do the things that you love, that’s when you realise how much it means to you,'' he told Channel 7’s Game Day back in June, four games into his comeback season.

Wallis’s circumstances were different, and perhaps more trying than what most injured players endure, and it’s for that reason that Friday isn’t just another milestone, especially for his teammates.

Wallis’s story is one of triumph of spirit, the Bulldogs spirit, and captain Bob Murphy spoke to westernbullogs.com.au this week about what the 24-year-old means to the wider Club

“All milestones are special but I think this one is extra special for the boys, and the Club because we know how hard he’s worked to get here and he does everything with purpose, Murphy said

“He loves the Club, loves his teammates and deserves all of the accolades he gets.”

Arriving at VU Whitten Oval as a father-son selection in the 2010 AFL Draft and the son former captain, and 261-game legend Steve Wallis, Wallis has red, white and blue blood flowing through his veins, literally.

Young Mitch was three, about to turn four when he was caught by Channel Seven’s cameras baulking at running through the banner down in Geelong that celebrated his Dad’s 250^th game.  Who would have thought that a tick over 20 years later, the little boy in the number 24 jumper would be celebrating his milestone.

The Bulldogs face one of the toughest challenges in football on tonight when they take on the Crows under lights at Adelaide Oval, but with a reinvigorated Wallis back among the pack, inspiring his clan, anything is possible.

“I’ve got the energy, I’ve got the spark to really want to play, and that might be my role, helping to really spark the boys and give them energy,” Wallis said.

“I’m relishing every minute that I’m having out on the ground, because once footy is taken away from you, as it was from me for a long time you fall in love with the game again”