HAWTHORN midfielder Alex Woodward is continuing to make steady progress on the road to recovery from his third knee reconstruction.

Woodward, who has been out of action since injuring his ACL in a VFL match midway through last season, has been back at training after Christmas and is gradually building towards a return.

“I started training with the boys about a month ago,” the 22-year-old told hawthornfc.com.ay this week.

“Unfortunately I broke down a little bit, so I had to pull back, but hopefully I’ll get back into things in a couple of weeks.

“Pre-Christmas was more conditioning, and post-Christmas has been conditioning but with an introduction to skills and drills and a bit of agility work.

“In terms of the injury, my pre-season has been pretty smooth, which has been good. I’m aiming to hopefully get about half a season out, from June – that’s the aim.”

For Woodward, his third reconstruction has required a different approach.

Previously the young midfielder had immersed himself with footy – but this time around he’s making the most of life outside of the game.

“I try to get away from footy as much as I can after training,” he said.

“I think that’s fairly important for me, especially going through this for the third time. It can impact on you mentally, the severity of it all.

"It’s a lot different (this time around), and it’s something that’s working really well for me.

“Previously I had tended to surround myself with football and didn’t really have much time away from it. To get that break after training is really important me.”

From a football perspective, it’s been about gradually building and balancing the eagerness to jump into every drill.

“It’s all about loads and not doing too much – trying to find the right amount of work so that when I do transition back into playing games it’s hopefully fairly seamless, rather than me trying to find my feet again,” Woodward

“I don’t really want to put a timeline on it (coming back), I don’t want that pressure.

“But I do want to get a couple of months of good footy training – high intensity drills and game like scenarios – and I’m not going to rush anything.”

While Woodward will have to watch on this weekend, as the Hawks start their season against the Cats, it’s still an exciting time.

“I think all the boys are fairly pumped and ready to go for Round 1,” he said.

“Me personally, even though I’m not playing, I’m quite excited as well – I’m really looking forward to the boys getting back out there.”