Hawthorn forward Mitch Lewis has provided an update on his recovery from an ACL injury sustained late last year. 

Speaking to the media ahead of the club’s Opening Round clash with Sydney, the 26-year-old discussed how his trip to the United States to see renowned specialist Bill Knowles has aided his recovery. 

He also touched on when he aims to return to match play, having not seen any AFL action since Round 17 in 2024. 

We summarised the key points from his press conference below. 

On his recovery status 

“It’s going well. The last couple of years haven’t really gone to plan in terms of my own body but I’m just over seven months post-surgery now and all things are going really well. I had a great trip over to the US doing a mini-training camp out there in Philadelphia. A lot of the things that we did there, I’ve taken back into my program now. I’m aiming for a mid-year return which will give me a chance to still have an impact on the season, hopefully.”

On his trip to the United States 

“It was a month ago or so now. I spent some time in Philly (Philadelphia) with James Blanck and one of our physios, Jack Price. A lot of it was just building the fundamentals again on patterns of running, change of direction, deceleration and making sure that I’m loading the knee joint properly because perhaps I wasn’t doing that for my entire life. Just trying to get those patterns down pat to give myself the best chance moving forward, so it’s been really good.”  

WATCH: MITCH LEWIS AND JAMES BLANCK'S US GOPRO DIARY! 

On when he anticipates to return to the field 

“I’m looking to be back somewhere around the mid-part of the season. I’m not sure how that’s going to look, it’ll probably be limited game time through Box Hill and then building my time up to return to availability in the AFL group.” 

On the group’s excitement ahead of Opening Round 

“All of the boys are extremely excited to say goodbye to the pre-season. It’s always a very long period of time but to be a part of Opening Round this year, all eyes will be on us on Friday night and we can’t wait for it.”