Carlton's Jarrad Waite wins weight battle while waiting out serious back injury

THE impressive thing is not that Jarrad Waite has come back from a debilitating back injury to bolster Carlton's late-season revival.

Jarrad Waite

THE impressive thing is not that Jarrad Waite has come back from a debilitating back injury to bolster Carlton's late-season revival.

The impressive thing is he didn't come back as big as a house.

A squashed disc consigned him to a mattress on the floor for three weeks, threatening to cruel a fourth successive season.

Last year and the year before, it was hip issues; in 2009, a knee reconstruction.

"I couldn't bend over or I couldn't walk or drive or anything like that. It was pretty bad," Waite, who missed from Round 8 to Round 18 with the injury, said.

"I was on the floor for about three or four weeks. There wasn't a whole lot going on at home. There was a fair bit of TV. Lucky the basketball was on. That got me through."

And food. What do you do when you're laid low? You eat.

Welcome to the story wife Jackie.

"I was cooking a lot," she said. "Cooking his favourite food (chicken schnitzel and steak) and I was coming home with surfing magazines and Big Ms and things like that - special treats.

"I was really expecting him to (get fat), but he didn't blow out at all."

Good mates at the Blues, Simon White, Lachie Henderson and Nick Duigan, would stop by to help pass the time.



"Jarrad can't sit still, so being forced to lie on the floor for three weeks, he was really grumpy," Jackie said.

"Basically, in the end, he was just willing his body to get better so he could get back out there."

After being floored for the best part of a month, with three epidural injections along the way to help relax his muscles, the real work began.

It was trial and error with his rehabilitation, which included pilates, swimming, physiotherapy, strengthening work and stretching.

But the 29-year-old, in his 10th season, was determined not to rush the process.

"At that stage, I just didn't want to wreck my back any more," he said.

"I don't want to be 35 and not be able to kick the footy with my kids.

"It took time. Each day it felt a little bit better.

"I did new exercises, coped with that well and then you start with more work.

"Pilates and a lot of the (associated) stretching was probably the best for it.

"It's one of those things you feel sorry for yourself, but then once you're up and going, you just want to get back out there and train well and do everything right."

Waite was held back by club doctors - another frustration - but the result was he had four weeks of solid training before his return and was able to have an immediate impact in his comeback game in Round 19, his 150th match, kicking three goals against Sydney.

Last week, he kicked five goals as the Blues belted the Bombers - equalling his career-best haul.

 Waite said the 10-game layoff could have been a blessing in disguise.

"I'm hopefully over all that now and in a really good spot with how my body's feeling," Waite said.

"I really feel that going forward it's not going to be an issue."