Hawthorn forward Mitch Lewis has opened up for the first time on his ‘pretty tough’ ACL surgery, revealing he was shocked by the level of pain afterwards.
The 25-year-old was ruled out of the Hawks’ breakthrough AFL finals tilt when he went down with the knee injury in July — in his first game back from a separate knee problem that had kept him out since April.
Surgery followed the new injury and, now six weeks removed from going under the knife, he is finally back to a new normal following a difficult initial recovery period.
“The first weeks, I’ll be honest, were pretty tough in terms of pain and swelling. Not sure if I was quite prepared for how sore it was going to be,” Lewis told 7NEWS Melbourne.
“Gladly off all my pain medication now and moving in the right direction. Little wins each day, which is really exciting.
“Back on the bike now, back in the pool. Include some different exercises each day. Happy with where we’re at and on track.”
Lewis will be out of sync with his teammates until late in the 2025 pre-season.
Set for his milestone first run in mid-to-late October in the middle of Hawthorn players’ scheduled leave period, he is already eyeing off the new year “when things are a bit more autonomous” in his rehab.
“I might head over to the US to get away from it all,” he said.
Insisting he is excited for the club’s finals appearance and not dwelling on missing out, Lewis will be watching from the stands when Friday night’s clash with the Western Bulldogs comes around.
“To be at the football club at this point in time, there’s a lot going on and our group relishes the big moments and the big stage,” he said.
“Everybody’s really excited for Friday night, I don’t think anyone — even potentially within the four walls of our football club — thought that 0-5 at the start of the year that we’d be in this position.
“To be here now is a credit to a lot of work that a lot of people have put in, I guess we just can’t wait to get to Friday night.
“Obviously I’d love to be out there along with other (injured) guys as well but that’s the way footy is. I think we’re going to be challenging in September for a long period of time.”
Lewis, who has never played more than 15 games in a season, was replaced in the side by young father-son star Calsher Dear while off-season recruit Mabior Chol has gone from strength to strength.
But regular goals from the small-medium forward brigade of Dylan Moore (35), Connor Macdonald (26), Jack Ginnivan (25), first-year star Nick Watson (18) and Blake Hardwick (13) has been the driving factor.
“I don’t think at the start of the year we drew it up to look like that in our forward line,” Lewis said.
“But the way it’s worked with Chol and Calsher as our tall targets and all of the small guys running around and doing their thing, it’s working really well.
“I think it’s a credit to (forwards coach) Adrian Hickmont and (veteran forward) Jack Gunston as well. He’s basically been a second coach for Hick, what he’s done to instruct and teach these young guys has been massive.
“Everybody’s still so young so Friday night will be such a good experience. No matter the result I think we’ll get a lot out of it and it’ll hold us in good stead going forward.”
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