Injured Tiger Nathan Drummond is edging closer to a return to full training, after rupturing the ACL in his left knee nine months ago.

Drummond sustained the season-ending injury whilst playing for the VFL Tigers last April, almost one-year to the day after he ruptured the ACL in his right knee whilst making his AFL debut for Richmond. 

Speaking on the second day of Richmond’s pre-season camp on the Sunshine Coast, Drummond said his immediate goals were to start playing and training.

“I’m nearly nine months into my ACL reconstruction, so I’ve started doing a bit of training with the group. It’s more non-contact drills, kicking and all those sorts of drills, which is exciting to be back and a bit more part of the group,” Drummond said.

“I feel like I’m not too far away from playing, hopefully I need about two months of full training and I’ll be back into it.”

Quick and agile, Drummond was drafted to the Tigers with pick No. 52 in the 2014 AFL National Draft.

A talented midfielder for the Murray Bushrangers, the 23-year-old expects to play a different role for the Club in 2018.

“I’m in the forward line group this year. I was in the midfield group last year, so just learning as much as I can about that role and trying to learn off players like Jack (Riewoldt) and Dan Butler and players that had a lot of success last year who can teach me a bit about the forward line…”

The Tigers have returned to the Sunshine Coast for a second consecutive year for their pre-season training camp, which began on Monday with an open training session at Maroochydore Multi Sports Complex. 

“(Monday) was our main training session, so I did a bit of training for about three hours… it was pretty hot,” Drummond said.

“I don’t know how many people there were but it looked like a few hundred out at training, all wearing their Tiger guernseys and scarves. They watched for about three hours in the pretty hot sun so it was really good of them to support the boys.” 

Drummond said the focus of the camp was to train hard, but also build strong relationships.

“You’re building connection and relationships with each other and trying to get to know the younger boys a little bit better and learn a bit about them away from footy,” Drummond said. 

“When you’re at the club you go home straight after training and miss those opportunities to get to know them on a personal level.”