CO-CAPTAIN Jack Viney says he wouldn’t have approached the latter part of his season any differently, despite suffering a foot injury, which forced him to miss four of the final eight matches of Melbourne’s 2017 season.

Viney missed rounds 16 and 17, and then rounds 22 and 23 with slightly different foot injuries. Despite being renowned for his remarkable ability to play through adversity, the injuries forced him to rest, as he explained.

“The first [foot injury] was the plantar fascia, which once you have surgery, changes the structure and dynamic of your foot a little bit. I was running differently and it ended up putting a lot of stress and load through the outside of my foot. It turned into a bone stress situation, which was a little bit worse,” he told melbournefc.com.au.

“My plantar fascia was unfortunate and hanging around for a while. It’s something you take into every game and manage during the week, so to go in, have surgery and get it over and done with, was almost a bit of a relief.

“It was a critical time of the year for us with finals right there for the taking. I felt like the team needed me to do everything in my power to get back as soon as possible. We had some big games coming up against Port Adelaide and St Kilda. I was confident in my body, that I was going to be able to get back for those games and I felt like I could contribute and help us get the win.

“On the flipside, I knew that it was risky and the potential of me doing something a little bit further down the track, and potentially missing some football, was a real chance of happening. But weighing up two options, I would have rather tried to help us guarantee a spot in the finals than rest up and be fresh for finals, but we might not be there. Looking back on it, I wouldn’t have done anything differently.”

Viney said it was difficult not playing in the final round.

“My body certainly wasn’t holding up towards the backend of the season, but I was pretty content with my injuries. I knew what they were as they’d been hanging around for a while,” he said.

“As much as I would have liked to have been out there and have helped around the ball, I knew what my injuries were and there was nothing I could have done about them.

“I tried my hardest to help the team in every way that I could, by physically being out there, so I still felt like I was contributing to the team and was trying to help us perform on game day.

“I did what I could instead of getting out there, but I feel like I do my best work on the footy field. It’s tough when you’re sitting up in the coach’s box because you’re helpless up there.”

Although it was generally a four to six-week injury, Viney said he pushed the boundaries.

“Once having surgery, the surgeons said four to six weeks is the typical amount of time to get back,” he said.

“Surgeons tend to be a little bit aggressive with their timeframes, physios like to be a little bit more conservative because there’s other muscles and things around the specific thing you have had surgery on.

“I said to the surgeon if you want to push it, what are the chances and he said you might be able to squeeze a week out of it and make it three. From that moment, that was my goal and I think I ended up getting back just before three weeks.”

Viney said if Melbourne had have made the finals, he’s still not sure if he would’ve been able to play.

“It’s still hard to know. I probably wouldn’t have been anywhere near 100 per cent if I had to play, but would have been willing to push it to get me out there,” he said.

“How many games would I have lasted? I don’t know, but the physios and myself were willing to try and see where we could get to.”

Viney said he relished the challenge of overcoming hurdles and his foot injury was one such situation.  

“I have no doubt that when people say to you, ‘you’re not going to be ready for this game’, it spurs you on to do your rehab more diligently and do everything in your power to prove them wrong,” he said.

“At the same time, what got to me was that I really felt confident in my ability to be able to do that.

“When people start saying it’s unlikely, you want to try a little bit harder. With the second injury, I knew that I had to rest it and I knew my body well enough to know it was one I couldn’t push.”