Jake Lever to continue knee rehab in Philadelphia with world’s top reconstruction specialist

Jake Lever will continue his rehab with the same world-renowned knee reconstruction specialist Nic Naitanui visited but his return to the field won’t happen until he’s ready.

Jake Lever hasn’t set a date when he will return. Picture: AAP

Melbourne defender Jake Lever will fly out to Philadelphia next week to visit the same world-renowned knee reconstruction specialist as Nic Naitanui.

Lever is on track to return around mid-season after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament for a second time in his career in Round 11 last year.

Devastated to miss the Demons’ finals campaign, Lever has ramped up his training in recent weeks and will undertake the same groundbreaking training program as Naitanui to help build strength and confidence in his left knee.

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Naitanui posted vision of some of the ballistic training exercises in 2017, which showed the high-flying ruckman complete a sequence of backwards rolls, cartwheels, jumps, sprints and running catches.

Lever, who was speaking at the announcement of Melbourne’s new sponsorship agreement with Jaguar, said he was thrilled to be spending time with one of the world’s top knee rehabilitation experts Bill Knowles.

“Things have been coming along really well and I’m super excited to go over there and work with Bill Knowles, who was the rehab guy for the American ski team,” Lever said.

“He has obviously seen a lot of knee reconstructions and you would have seen all the Nic Nat stuff, and Bill is a big driver behind all of that.

Jake Lever will fly to Philadelphia to continue his rehabilitation from a knee reconstruction. Picture: Getty Images

“So he is going to check-out my recovery and give me some drills to take back, which I’m really looking forward to.

“Then I’ll come back and hopefully get in to some of the main training drills with the rest of the boys.”

One of the game’s best intercepting backmen, Lever experienced a setback in November when he underwent surgery to remove a nerve causing some aggravation in his knee.

But since then the 22-year-old has been trouble free.

“Jordan Lewis threw me under the bus saying it was an arthroscope, but it was just a nerve which had been grown over by scar tissue,” he said.

“It was affecting my running, but the doctors went in and killed it off, which doesn’t sound great in hindsight, but it’s actually helped a hell of a lot.

“It’s really freed me up so I’m running around now no problems and putting in about 11 or 12km a session at the minute.”

The departure of star spearhead Jesse Hogan enabled Melbourne to add Gold Coast co-captain and full-back Steve May in the trade period, addressing the Demons’ biggest weakness in the back half.

It has the put the Dees in a strong position to break the AFL’s longest premiership drought, and Lever said he would take his time over the next few months to make sure his knee was 100 per cent ready to return.

Demons stars Nathan Jones, Jack Viney and Max Gawn at the announcement of Melbourne’s new sponsorship deal with Jaguar at Gosch’s Paddock. Picture: Sarah Matray

Lever said he made the mistake of being too focused on a specific return date in the first few months of his recovery, but had since taken a more relaxed approach.

“Early on, that was my issue,” he said.

“I had circled Round 1 (comeback) and I was eight months away from Round 1 and I was getting very frustrated at things that I was supposed to do that I couldn’t do.

“So now, I think when you have two knees (reconstructions) it is really important to just take your time and make sure you get everything right.

“A big driver for me was not to miss out on what I missed out on last year, and if that takes an extra couple of weeks, I’ll take that.

“‘Goody’ (Simon Goodwin) has really reiterated that to me, just take your time and be patient, so I’ll stick to that.”