St Kilda captain Jarryn Geary is unsure when he'll return from an emergency operation on a corked thigh that left him with an open wound for five days as well as 30 stitches.
Geary underwent three rounds of surgery to fix compartment syndrome of the thigh, which resulted from a goal-saving collision with Melbourne's Jayden Hunt in round five of the AFL season.
The defender's leg was cut open to allow the muscle to swell and decrease pressure.
Geary, who spent five days in hospital with an open wound, was back on an exercise bike on Thursday but still has "about 30 staples and 19 stitches" in his leg.
"The stitches look pretty big. They're like fishing wire, not your usual eyebrow stitches," he laughed.
"It was an interesting experience. One I wouldn't want to go through ever again but I'm just glad that I'm out of hospital now and on the road to recovery.
"It (returning to play) is all going to be about how the wound heals and ... what kind of condition my muscle is in.
"If that responds really well then it'll probably be a short time frame but if it doesn't then it might be longer. We'll just have to wait and see."
The 30-year-old downplayed the severity of his setback but a photo of Geary's leg in hospital that is being circulated online details the graphic extent of his procedures.
"Five days with an open wound but it was covered, I wasn't looking at it ... if I had of been looking at it, I would have been in a pretty dark place," he said.
"It was a pretty long week ...there was 5-10 per cent of the muscle that changed a little bit in colour.
"We got on top of it early enough for me not to have any permanent muscle damage.
"People have lost limbs but I wasn't ever close to that ... I got it (operated on) really early."
Geary, concerned that his leg was getting larger and larger after the bruising match against Melbourne, contacted club doctor Tim Barbour and was told to rush to hospital.
Within hours of that call, the captain underwent the first of three procedures.
"I've had worst corkies, definitely," he said.
"I started icing it and it just kept getting bigger."
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