Jamie Elliott hasn’t given up hope of playing this season as he recovers from back surgery

COLLINGWOOD forward Jamie Elliott is refusing to give up hope of playing this season despite suffering a debilitating pars defect injury in his back.

Jamie Elliott hasn’t played this season. Picture: Hamish Blair

COLLINGWOOD forward Jamie Elliott is refusing to give up hope of playing this season despite suffering a debilitating pars defect injury in his back.

Elliott has not played a game this season amid the Pies’ injury crisis after suffering a back injury in the pre-season.

The star Pie, who was Collingwood’s leading goalkicker last season, was forced to have surgery on his back two weeks ago after scans showed a crack in a bone on the right side of his back.

But Elliott, who is still recovering from surgery and unable to train for another month, is refusing to concede his season is over.

He said he will take extra caution in his recovery and won’t rush it, but is keen to rebuild his fitness and get back on the field this year.

“I’ve got another four weeks of back brace, doing nothing and then I’ll start to gradually build up running and jogging,” Elliott told the club’s website.

“I’m not going to throw the season out the window.

“Obviously it has been tough the last few months with what I’ve gone through. I’ve lost a lot of fitness and conditioning, so I’m going to have to get that back.

Jamie Elliott is unable to train for another month. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

“Whether I can get that back in six weeks without having any pain or do we go conservative a let it heal a little bit longer just in case? It’s a hard one.

“We’ll have to take a couple of weeks at a time and get scans and see where it’s at but I'm not going to say that I can’t play footy at the end of this year because I know it’s a possibility.”

The 23-year-old will aim to step up his training loads in a bid to return to the field this year in a month.

“I think for the next four weeks it’s just letting that bone take it’s course,’’ he said.

“I can still walk and stuff like that, (but will) stay out of those risky positions like the extension, flexion and rotation as much as possible and not lift heavy things.

“Then at that six-week mark I can gradually build up, I’ll start jogging and then at the 12-week mark that’s when I’m meant to be all clear to play.

“So six to 12 weeks, that’s when I’ve got to get all my load in. ‘’

Elliott revealed he first suffered an injury to his back in the Round 15 loss to Port Adelaide last year, which saw him miss two weeks but returned to play out the season.

He returned for pre-season training in November but when skill work started he felt sharp pain in his back, the first of a couple of setbacks in the start of the year.

“Last year playing against Port Adelaide I had a little bit of bone stress through that game and missed a couple of games and then played for the rest of the year,” he said.

Jamie Elliott said he was feeling as fit as ever when he returned for pre-season training before his back injury flared up. Picture: Mike Keating

“Had my off-season, came back and had a pretty strong start to the pre-season, I hadn’t been fitter.

“When the balls came out, when we came back in December, and I went for a set shot and I felt my right side just ... it was a weird feeling, it was a sharp pain, like someone stabbing me in the back.

“We had a scan and it showed more bone stress.”

Elliott slowly built up his training as the season started but again, when he went back into skill work he suffered more pain before a CT scan revealed a more serious injury that required surgery.

“I started kicking again and the same thing (happened), I just had a little bit more discomfort in that right side.

“We got another scan, this time it was a CT scan, so we had a look at the bone and it showed a crack in my right side, which is what was clarified as a pars defect.

“It’s very individual. My posture comes into it, my genes come into it. All those things come into play, I don’t think it comes down to one specific moment, I think it’s a little build up.

“I think it was always going to happen, it was just a (matter) of time.”