Melbourne co-captain Jack Viney admits he won't be pain-free if he makes a miracle return from foot surgery in the Demons' AFL clash with Port Adelaide on Saturday.
The 23-year-old was supposed to be sidelined for up to six weeks after injuring his foot against Sydney in round 15 three weeks ago but is confident of playing at the MCG.
Only tossing his crutches aside on Monday, Viney says he needs to pass some tests to play and has told club physios to give him a thorough work-out before a decision is made on Thursday.
"I'm pretty confident but I'm an optimistic person and the physios are a little more conservative, so I've told them to throw things at me and if I can't pass the test then it's a no-go but until now I've been able to do what I need to to play this weekend," Viney said on Wednesday.
The tough midfielder says he will still have some discomfort in his foot, which has troubled him for a year.
But as long as he wouldn't make the injury worse and could give the team 100 per cent he wanted to play with his seventh-placed side desperate to hang on to their top-eight ladder position against Port, who sit fourth.
"There's discomfort but it's about a balance of not making it worse and up until now what's been thrown at me hasn't made it worse," Viney said.
"I'm not going to be stupid about it; the team's the main thing and if I'm going out there and not being able to play at the highest level then I will put the team under more pressure and I don't want to do that."
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