Gilbert eyes Round 1 return as Bennett's Bunnies loom

“But I can't look too far down the track, I've got a lot of things to get right and I'm really excited to just do that at the moment.”

Through the long recovery period, Gilbert said the tough times were made easier to handle by the support he received from his family and friends, as well as the club who deployed him in an ambassador role at Dolphins members events to help him remain engaged outside of the training paddock.

However, chats with former Cowboys and Maroons teammate Reuben Cotter, who returned to back-to-back ACL injuries to refashion himself from a dummy half into one of the leading middles in the game, have helped Gilbert navigate the long recovery time frames.

“It's obviously been tough, but I definitely haven't done it by myself, I've had a great support team around me, starting from my wife and my family and obviously the club as well has been amazing," Gilbert said.

"I feel very supported through this whole process and it's what excites me to come back and I've always said from the start, it's going to be a team effort for me to get back on the field and it feels like that and I guess it's my time to hold up that end of the bargain.

“My good mate Reuben Cotter missed three years of footy, so I've drawn a lot of strength and a lot of advice from him and he's been really good for me.

“Obviously there are other class players that have come down (with injury) and that have come back and bounced back better; there's no reason why I can't do it and I'm really looking forward to that challenge and opportunity to get back and play the footy I know I can play.

“I've spoken to Reuben a fair bit, he's the first person I probably called when it happened.

“We just have little chats and catching up here and there, it's been really nice and just bouncing ideas off him, it's been really good for me, for my confidence.

“I've seen a few blokes at the club, Plathy and Stoney (Ray Stone) have had knees as well, so I've been asking them how they've been going at this time with their rehab and they've been really good for me.”

While highly regarded at the club, Gilbert said he knows he wasn’t going to “walk straight back into the side” and has spoken with coach Kristian Woolf about a plan on how he expects to return to the side, with the versatile Max Plath having made the lock position his own this past season with a club player of the year performance.

“Woolfy’s (coach Kristian Woolf) sat down with me and we've come up with a little plan about all those kinds of things.

“I'm just really looking forward to playing first grade and I'm really looking forward to playing with Max, I haven't played any footy with him and the year he came off last year and the type of person he is, I can't wait to play with him because I think he's going to make me a better player and I'm really excited for that opportunity.

“We've got a plan and it's not a complicated plan. It's quite simple, (but) the thing about that is it’s quite far away for me anyhow; getting things right, day-to-day training, going back and playing at a level, you need to go earn that, and I know for a fact that I'm not going to walk back into any jersey or this side.

“I need to work hard. I need to get my football back to a level that's Dolphins standard, and I need to work really hard today and tomorrow, and all those things will come.”