Easton Wood has had his fair share of injury set-backs, but after taking a long term approach to rehabilitation from his most recent injury, the Western Bulldogs defender is confident in his body again.

Richmond in round three was the last time Wood played senior football and the 23-year-old could not be more eager to take to the field with his mates again.

“It’s been a long time out and… last week was the first game with no restrictions, so to finally have the shackles off in a sense was a great feeling,” Wood said.

“In the last week I played, I managed to play the whole game without any awareness of what is going on with my hamstrings.

“I feel like now I can finally say I am ready and I am confident again in my body - it might sound like a simple thing but I haven’t been able to say that all season.”

While the 23-year-old was restricted from making an on field impact this season, he continued to buy in to the Bulldogs’ evolution and reassess how he could improve.

“It would be irresponsible not to keep in touch and to keep track of what the team is doing,” he said.

“I have been aligned from the very start with every team meeting and every team review.

“Even though I can’t play I can still think of how my game applies to that and what I can do to improve as well.”

Wood said his fellow defenders have made strong progressions this season and the emphasis to create the play has been stronger.

“We’ve set a strong base and I think a few of the finer details that we have started to work on have started to come out in our games,” he said.

“There’s been a bit of a shift in our back six, really all six wanting the ball and opening the ground up and I think that has been a big change and a focus on moving the ball more efficiently.”