CHRISTIAN Petracca says he has relished running again, after rupturing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee at training in mid-February.

Petracca, who was the second player selected in last year’s NAB AFL Draft, said it had been “pretty frustrating” undergoing rehabilitation, but he was rapt to be back running.  

“It’s been really good. It’s funny, when you haven’t run for 16 weeks, you first start running and you’re a bit uncoordinated, because you’re a bit unused to it,” he told Dee TV at Melbourne’s heartland training session at Toorak Park on Thursday night.

“But once you start again with the swing of things, it becomes so much easier.

“I’ve done my fourth session yesterday (Wednesday) of running and it’s going really well, so hopefully I can keep on improving.”

Petracca was philosophical about spending his first AFL-listed season on the sidelines.

“I’m a real positive kid and really upbeat, so it hasn’t been too different to be honest. I’d love to play footy, but I try and approach every day the same way and I love life to be honest,” he said.

“It’s a shame that I’ve done my knee, but you’ve got to look at the bigger picture and I’m only 19 years old and one year out of the game isn’t going to cost much to be honest.

“As a 19-year-old, you’ve just got to develop and learn as much as you can and Jesse Hogan, for me, has done that. He had to wait two years to be honest, with his mini-draft and then he had back problems and look at him now – he’s had a great first 10 games of his career.”

Petracca said he would continue building his program for the rest of the 2015 season with an eye to the pre-season.

“Hopefully I’ll keep continuing to build my running and then slowly step-by-step work back into training sessions and slowly get my agility back,” he said.

“For me, it’s not about rushing it and it’s just about taking my time, and hopefully I’ll get back for day one of pre-season in November.”

Reflecting on Melbourne’s outstanding win over Geelong at Simonds Stadium last round, Petracca said he watched his teammates from afar with much delight.

“I couldn’t make the trip down, but I wish I was there to be honest,” he said.

“It was a great win and it was really something that wasn’t really a surprise to be honest.

“We know we can play good footy and our best footy can beat anyone to be honest on a good day. The club is going somewhere, which is the main thing.”

Petracca said the positive energy around the club had been strong since the win, but he added that was the norm most of the time.  

“Every game, even after a loss, we’re always up and about and that’s the best thing about the group,” he said.

“We’re so young and we’re so inexperienced and we all have games where we’ll probably disappoint supporters and games that will be unbelievable.

“The best thing about it is that we approach every game the same way … and our spirits will always be up.”