Veteran defender Dale Morris is back up and running, as he targets a return to football over the next two months. 

After sustaining a significant partial tear to his left ACL late in the pre-season, the 36-year-old is ticking boxes and ramping up his rehabilitation. 

Morris spoke to the Freedom in a Cage podcast around the process for his return, working with surgeon David Young and the Bulldogs’ medical team. 

“There’s so many things surrounding it – whether it is going to hold up or not,” he said.

“The scans showed it was pretty good, but nothing’s pretty good until Youngy’s been through it.

“Just going through that ACL test is nerve-wracking enough.

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“He tried every test there is, and we passed all of them so that’s a couple of boxes ticked.” 

After seven weeks of purely upper body work, Morris is now on allowed on his feet and joined the group for a training session on Tuesday, running with the support of a knee brace and having a kick. 

All going well with the upcoming stages of his rehabilitation, Morris could make a return in the next six-to-eight weeks.

“I’ve had a few runs now, and we’re slowly going to build it up,” he said.

“The ACL at the moment – you think about it like a piece of rope. 

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“Where the partial tear was, you can pull that rope apart and it frays. 

“At the moment, we’re trying to get that back together and it’s immature – it’s back together, but it’s still got a bit of a way to go to lock in and heal.

“Now it’s about strengthening, conditioning and getting back out there.”