Port Adelaide key forward Charlie Dixon has admitted he feared for his career early in the recovery process

After two surgeries on a broken leg, Port Adelaide key forward Charlie Dixon feared for his career but now he is only a few weeks away from playing again.

Charlie Dixon had fears his career was over. Picture: SARAH REED

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Charlie Dixon has revealed he had fears he would never play football again after breaking his leg and twice having surgery during the off-season.

The 200cm forward injured himself in Round 21 last season and there had been more than one setback during his recovery.

But he looked strong again last week, when he was boxing in the indoor training area at A

lberton away from the main group and has started to run again.

“There’s been a lot of low moments,” Dixon told Fox Footy’s AFL Tonight.

“After my second surgery, I went back home to Cairns and there wasn’t much going on.

“I found myself wondering if I was going to play football again.

“The negative thoughts start to sink in and you find yourself in a pretty bad place.

“Regardless of who’s around you, it’s hard to fight your way out of that. I was around my mum and my brother, but it was hard to see the good in anything really.

“I was running and only getting one to two days of actual running in before I would get a shooting pain up my leg where I couldn’t change direction, couldn’t put too much weight through it when running.

“It’s definitely a question that hangs over the body when I turn 29 this year.

“There’s always those questions of: ‘Will I be able to get back and play the footy that I used to be able to do?’”

Dixon reckoned he’d be good to go again in about a month.

But coach Ken Hinkley has also said he is not prepared to take any chances with Dixon, who completely changes the look of Port Adelaide’ attack.

“At the moment, I’m four to five weeks away — and that’s the only thing on my mind now, to try and get myself back and help my team out and do everything I can to get myself fit and strong again,” Dixon said. “There’s no point in sitting around at home and feeling sorry for yourself when you’ve got a lot of good people around you.”