Since the year of his debut, NathanVardy has been dealt with an unfortunate hand of two long-term injuries, however, the 23-year-old has set his sightson a successful recovery in 2015.

Althoughit has been “frustrating” to watch his teammates from the sidelines and seeingthem progress, Vardy takes inspiration from those who have overcome thedifficulties of a similar situation. 

Followinghis debut in 2011 against Carlton, Vardy has played a total of 21 senior gamesfor the Cats.

“It’sfrustrating. You’d love it to be a fairytale, like a Mark Blicavs fairytale,who’s going on his third year and he’s played nearly 50 games,” Vardytold News Limited.

“Someguys have that, some guys don’t. I got drafted with Mitch Duncan and he’splayed 100 games.

“You’dlove it to have gone that way but the way I see it, Corey Enright had hisinjury problems when he first got to the club and he’s probably going to play300 games now.

“I’mnot saying I’m going to get to that, obviously I’ve missed a bit more footythan he has but having the injuries gives me the chance to get other parts ofmy body right, so I’ll be stronger and hopefully more rounded as an athlete, soI can be injury-free for the rest of my career.”

AfterVardy injured his hip in Round 9 against the Swans in 2011, Vardy returned to thelong-term injury list with a raptured ACL following another innocuous fall,which occurred on the training track only months before the beginning of the2014 season.

“Ijust remember Mark Blicavs kicked it into the 50 and I was on Tom Lonergan, Ijust ran for the ball, just a marking contest and I landed a little bit badly,”Vardy explained.

“Straightaway I heard a pop that a lot of people have spoken about when they’ve donetheir ACLs. It clicked in my head before I’d even hit the ground that I’ve donemy ACL.

“Itwas excruciating pain to start off with and then about a couple of minuteslater there was nothing, I just laid there.

“Thephysios came and assessed it and they didn’t say anything to me when I was outthere, they took me inside and I put some ice on it, then I just asked thequestion ‘what do you think?’ and they said ‘we can’t feel your ACL mate, butwe’ll get scans this afternoon to confirm it’.”

Havinghad a positive end to 2013, a full preseason and a likely chance of a promotionwith the de-listing of James Podsiadly, made for a harder blow when Vardy receivedthe news about his knee, as he was just about to embark on a career-lifting chapterwith the Cats. 

“That’swhat I’d been told by the club — that they saw me as one of the replacementsfor Pods,” Vardy said.

“Obviouslythere were a few guys they thought could go through there, and I was trainingas a key forward, I spent a lot of time with Hawk, just developing a differentrole because I’d played more as a ruckman the year before.

“Tobe able to get a full pre-season in as well, I was looking forward to having agood year and going from there and for it to happen that close to the year, itsucked.

“Ihad a cry once I got into the rooms, because straight away in my head I thought‘I’ve done this’ and then especially when they said they couldn’t feel the ACL.I got my cry out of the way then.”

Despitefacing another long year watching from the bench, Vardy’s spirits were kept incheck with the support of his teammates. One message that stuck in his mindduring his recovery was from Geelong defender Harry Taylor.

“Hejust said, ‘mate, I know it’s a bad thing, but there’s always someone worseoff, so just keep positive and you’ll be fine.’,” Vardy recalled.

“Ijust wrote back to him ‘I’ve done it before, I’ve had a year off before, I cando it again’.

“Youget your head around what you have to do when you’re in rehab and what it feelslike to be there as well.

“It’snot great and you don’t want to do it again but you just understand it a littlebit more once you’ve done it before, and you know what’s asked of you, so it’sa little bit easier to get through the days.”

Afterundergoing surgery, Vardy flew over to Europe for a seven-week holiday. Headmits it wasn’t helpful for his physical fitness but mentally the trip was beneficial.

“BecauseI had the seven weeks I am a bit behind where I would be if I had justdone the rehab through, because it was just seven weeks mental holiday time,”he said.

“ButI think having that break, it made the season a lot easier to get through.

“Thestart of the rehab was probably easier to deal with because I knew I was goingto Europe, so I was doing a lot of upper body weights to get the rig lookinggood to go overseas.

“SoI had something to look forward to, and it was probably once I got back ... Iwas just watching the boys finish out the year, that was probably the hardestbit.”

Duringhis rehab, Vardy has also been able to receive advice and support from DanielMenzel, who is currently recovering from his fourth knee reconstruction.  

“I’vehad someone to turn to when I’ve had things going on or I need some advice juston how the knee feels because he’s been through it a number of times,” Vardysaid.

“Iwould say ‘my knee feels like this today, did yours ever feel like that?’ andhe’d say ‘yeah, I got that heaps’ and I’d feel like that’s just normal, becauseyou do worry, you wake up one morning and it’s a lot sorer than it was the daybefore and you want to know if you’ve done something to it or if that’s normal.

“SoI’ve been able to say things to Menz and he’s been reassuring in that way.”

Despitethe hurdles that have landed on Vardy’s path since arrive at the Cats, he is confident that his bodywon’t stand in the way of a prosperous career in AFL.  

“Theinjuries I have had - have been freak accidents. They haven’t been because mybody won’t stand up, like I keep doing a hamstring or something like that,”Vardy explained.

“They’vebeen two big injuries that have done the damage.

“Ithink my body should be fine in that respect, so I haven’t really worried toomuch about that.”