Comeback beckons as Gordon reignites career

He’ll put on his boots, grab a footy and run out onto Port Melbourne’s TEAC Oval, ready to train under the watchful eye of Borough coach Gary Ayres.

A spot on a VFL list is up for grabs — but the chance to train again means so much more than that to the Camperdown forward.

Port Melbourne’s opening pre-season training run will mark a significant milestone in a comeback from a serious back injury which threatened to prematurely end his promising career.

Gordon was working on his family’s Camperdown farm when he suffered a prolapsed disc in his back in August 2012 — just months out from the AFL state combine and a chance to impress recruiters.

He went to the screening but couldn’t test and from there it went downhill.

Gordon, 20, didn’t play at all last season and was forced to consider his football mortality.

“The nature of the injury was a pretty serious thing,” he said.

“The doctors I went to see pushed it to me that ‘you have to come to terms that it might never come good and you might never play again’.

“That was hard to take but I am taking it day-by-day and it’s improving, which is a good sign.”

Gordon is back running and now feels comfortable kicking a football around.

He’s yet to start full body contact work but has learned how to manage his injury.

He knows what works and what doesn’t, when to push and when to rest.

“You take it day-by-day but I am under constant supervision by physios and I am constantly getting massages,” Gordon said.

“It feels good. I am back running. I have to get my fitness back up to the match fitness that is required I guess.

“I’ve been running for three or four months. There is a difference between starting to run and the high-intensity stuff.

“There was a big stint where I could only swim and bike ride so three or four months ago I really started to believe I could get back into it because I was feeling good running around.”

The first few months after the injury were the most painful.

Gordon’s mobility was hindered significantly.

“When I first did it I was pretty sore because it was impinging on a nerve which runs all the way down your leg so it was quite demobilising and I was walking around with a limp,” he said.

“The first couple of months it was really sore and quite hard because you can’t do a lot, especially last year on the farm because there is a lot of manual labour so that made it tough.”

Gordon visits the physiotherapist once a fortnight, more if needed.

“He gives me things to do like pilates and certain programs I have to do at home,” he said.

Gordon still dreams of making the AFL.

The former Geelong Falcon understands it would take a lot of work, and a pinch of luck.

“I am only 20 and I have had these setbacks in vital years and opportunities have gone — but I am only 20,” he said.

Injury kept Gordon from testing at the 2011 AFL draft combine as well as last year’s state combine.

“It was tricky because I couldn’t do anything. I went for a look and couldn’t do much,” he said of the one-day state camp.

The chance to train with Port Melbourne — a club where former South Warrnambool midfielder Sam Dwyer honed his skills for eight seasons before Collingwood took a punt on him as a rookie 12 months ago — keeps Gordon’s dream burning.

Gordon will train Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays with the Borough and expects to have a better indication of his chances of making their VFL list by Christmas. 

He is a 194-centimetre mobile forward who can envisage playing defence and midfield if needed.

“I want to play footy at the highest that my ability allows,” Gordon said. 

“My thoughts are if I don’t cut it at Port Melbourne that at least I’ll have a VFL pre-season under my belt.”

Port Melbourne had shown interest in Gordon, whose cousin Tom plays for the Borough, before his injury setback.

“I spoke to Port Melbourne after my top-age year at the Falcons and they asked if I wanted to train,” he said. 

“(That was) before I went back to the Falcons as a 19-year-old.”

He moved to Geelong this year and has just completed the first year of a health sciences course at university.

Gordon, who spent 2012 in the TAC Cup system as a 19-year-old, kept a close eye on Camperdown’s fortunes.

Watching was hard and he realised how much the sport meant to him.

“You really miss it when you are watching the team run out and play every weekend,” he said. 

“I did the running for Camperdown a lot of the time so I was back and forth most weekends.”

Gordon knows his comeback is in its early stages but he’s ready for the challenge.

“It’s exciting to be back. I missed it a lot,” he said.

justine.mc@fairfaxmedia.com.au