Melbourne Victory midfielder Grant Brebner admits he contemplated the end of his career over a torrid past 12 months, but the tough Scot is on his way back from a debilitating groin injury and wants to play a part early in the new season.
Brebner hasn't played any competitive football since early December, when the injury, which is related to osteitis pubis, ended his season.
Now 30 and in the final year of his contract, Brebner said that there were times in the past eight months when he felt like throwing in the towel, but the improvement in the injury since he recently returned home to Scotland has given him the encouragement to push on.
"Last year was personally, one of the worst I've had in terms of how I felt. I think there were only two games last year where I felt 100 percent. We all knew what was wrong, but we were hoping and praying that it was going to get better," he said.
"It never materialised. It got to a stage where I couldn't really enjoy what I was doing and I think it was obvious to everybody. I needed to take an enforced break and hopefully it's going to work out."
Brebner admitted he hit rock bottom after feeling like he could no longer enjoy being out on the field because of the discomfort he felt.
"It was around December. I was playing and I just couldn't give my best. Although you want to play, it just wasn't right. It's not an injury like a pulled muscle or a broken leg, there's no timeframe of how you should get better, how you should treat it. You were always going in thinking, 'today could be alright' and then you'd wake up the next day and it wouldn't last."
"You think, 'how long do you want to go on with this?' Do you try to get it right or spend the rest of your career an 80 percent player?" he said.
After sitting out the final five games of the Hyundai A-League season, then missing the six games of the Asian Champions League campaign, a turning point came when he returned back to Scotland in a bid to re-evaluate his future.
"I trained on my own and it was something I had to do. It was good to get away from everywhere and just be able to focus on getting myself right," he said. "I will be coming back very determined. You can't spend as long as I have out of the game and not be driven and determined to do well."
With the club expecting him to be available by about Round 4 of the regular season, Brebner is wary of setting a definitive comeback date.
"That in itself is obviously an aim. It would be too soon to say Round 1. But when you've been out as long as I have, it's important to get some games in, and I don't know how I'll do that," he said.
"We'll have to look at the Youth League and try to build up that way. Round 3 or 4 is a personal aim, but it's not one I'll bust a gut to get to because it's a case of getting it right."