LEITCHVILLE'S Marty Hore has never had a soft tissue injury before.
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In fact, the AFL footballer never really had an injury at all.
In 2019, he broke his collarbone, and missed about two weeks, and that's the worst of it.
In his whole football career he's barely missed a game.
So when he hurt his quad, he didn't know what had happened.
“I didn't know if it was a strain or just a knick, I had nothing to compare it to,” Hore said.
“Then I felt my leg, and there was a hole in it.”
That quad injury was a bad one - he had ruptured the tendon.
He was a travelling emergency fro Melbourne in round one of the AFL, has been through the league's shutdown due to COVID, and been in a moon boot after a teammate crushed the big toe on his preferred left boot.
Then, he was out of action for the next 14 weeks as he began his recovery from the injury.
“I've had a really good run, injury wise, for the past four or five years, I haven't missed a lot of games,” he said.
“So to miss large chunk of football after a long pre-season was not easy at all. I was in really good condition when we got back, so to get injured twice sucked.”
During recovery, the AFL moved clubs out of Victoria in response to the state's growing COVID-19 situation, though Hore remained in Melbourne with a group for an extra three weeks.
Then, he made the trip north to join the club and continue his recovery.
“I was continuing my recovery, and was also able to find other things to do,” Hore said.
“I worked with the reserves as the defence-line coach for a lot of the scratch matches. I play the same system and I know what we are trying to do, so I was able to help them and work with them.”
But as the season neared its end, Hore was ready to return, and took to the field in the final scratch matches of the year.
Though not all in his own guernsey.
“I played the first scratch match for Melbourne and felt really good,” Hore said.
“Everyone is going as hard as they can because they want to be back in the team and prove they belong.”
Then for game two, he swapped jumpers, lining up for the reigning premier Richmond.
“We were still a chance of playing finals in the final games of the season, so we played the last two scratch matches to maker sure everyone was ready,” Hore said.
“It's weird playing against your teammates in another club's guernsey, but it was an interesting experience being out there.”
The Demons missed the AFL finals, with Hore not appearing in a single match at senior level for the year.
And it was not a good year to do so.
The Demons much maligned key defender Steven May was close to the All-Australian side, while high profile recruit Jake Lever played every game.
Hore said the team's defence was really gelling after May and Lever spent much of previous seasons injured.
But with the salary cap and list sizes likely to increase, Hore admits he was worried at stages about not getting on the field.
“You want to prove you deserve to be there, but you can't get on the field,” he said.
“I was out of contract this season, so I just made sure I did everything the right way, working as hard on my rehab, doing everything around the club.”
Back In Melbourne, Hore is recovering from more surgery.
“I've had a bit of surgery on my re-constructed finger,” he said.
“It's been twice as big as every other one on my hand, so that's been uncomfortable. They had to clean it up and take the screws out.
“But it will be ok soon, and hopefully I'll be able to get out and return to training.”
Sports journalist