The Gold Coast SUNS defender’s knee buckling in a collision as he contested the footy during the Club’s Round 12 match against North Melbourne last year.
The official diagnosis: a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament. The prognosis: a full reconstruction followed by twelve months of painful rehabilitation.
It was a devastating blow for the former South Australian team captain, who’d started to find his feet in the GC SUNS defensive line.
However, much like his approach to footy, Seb committed himself to making a swift and full recovery and last weekend laced up his boots and pulled on the club Guernsey for the first time in more than a year.
“I was a little bit rusty, just reading the game and my awareness, but probably to be expected having so much time out, but it was just so good to be back and playing against opposition and not just my team mates.”
Named to travel south to Blacktown, Sydney, in Shaun Hart’s NEAFL team, Seb quietly slipped back into football without much fanfare; however internally, he was bubbling with emotion and extremely excited to be back playing footy.
“Obviously it was a very long time out and I missed playing with the boys a lot and yeah have watched a lot of their footy this year and I was just really looking forward to getting back out there.”
“I was very much keen just to go under the radar and tick it off, but at the same time very excited to be back and involved and playing footy which is where I want to be.”
While the GC SUNS comfortably accounted for the Giants, Seb - who played three quarters of the match - was just pleased to get through unscathed.
“It felt fine during the game and during the training and the game, felt really strong and because I have had a few little setbacks that were unrelated to my knee, it’s kind of given it a bit more time to give me no doubt that it’s strong and healthy.”
“It did pull up a little bit sore, I had a bit of general soreness, after the game, the next day, but that’s good to have that, felt like I had played a game so that was great.”
It’s expected that Tape will progress to a full game this weekend as he continues in his quest to return to top flight AFL and reclaim his place in the Gold Coast’s top 22.
“The focus for me over the next couple of weeks is recovering my body and getting it right to be as fresh as I can to play games, I have got a little window where I need to get back into playing footy and being a footballer and recovering and getting match fitness is a real focus for me at the moment.”
