Charlie Curnow says he feels better than he has since his horrific knee injury but the star Carlton forward admits he will have to manage pain for the rest of his career.
The Blues spearhead sat out more than two years of football due to numerous knee issues, including a fractured right patella in 2019.
There were fears Curnow would be forced into premature retirement, or at best return a shadow of the player he once was.
But the 26-year-old has stamped his mark as one of the AFL's best forwards, scoring 108 goals since coming back late in 2021.
"I've got two two bolts, kind of screws, connected together," Curnow said of his damaged right knee.
"It's just working with that and making sure the surface around my kneecap is (feeling good). I could get swelling some weeks and other (times) maybe not so much.
"If there is a bit of a 'bony' feel in my kneecap that week, I might have more swelling, I might just reduce my loads (at training).
"The longer I train and the longer I keep at it, it's getting better over time. It's getting back to where it was before the injury."
Curnow is right in the race to win back-to-back Coleman medals, sitting just one goal behind this season's leader, Adelaide's Taylor Walker (43).
After booting a career-high nine goals in a 108-point rout of hapless West Coast in late April, Curnow was part of a side that suffered six-straight defeats as Carlton's season derailed.
But the Blues went into the bye last week reflecting on a 59-point smashing of Gold Coast to take some heat off coach Michael Voss.
"We probably had a few players, including myself, just a bit low on confidence and you come in and out of that," said Curnow, who will line-up for his 100th game in Carlton's round-17 clash with Fremantle.
The Blues will be hoping to break the curse of teams losing when coming off a bye when they face Hawthorn at the MCG on Sunday.
Teams re-entering the action against opponents who were active the week before have a collective 0-8 record so far this season.
