Bird, who sustained a minor injury to his posterior cruciate ligament in the Sydney Swans’ round 21 clash with St Kilda, sat out of the club’s last two games of the regular season before returning as the sub in last Saturday’s qualifying final.
When defender Nick Malceski went down with a hamstring injury in the first quarter last week, Bird was thrust into the match earlier than he expected, and was able to put his left knee to the test.
“Mal came off pretty early so I was put into the game and ended up playing three quarters, and the knee actually held up pretty well,” Bird told SwansTV.
“I ended up playing a bit more game time than expected, but I got through pretty good and it was good to get the win.
“I was pretty pleased to get through unscathed and it’s given me a bit of confidence going forward with it.”
While PCL injuries have seen players sidelined for a month of more, Bird acknowledged that he was lucky to be able to return to the field so soon.
The 25-year-old, who suffered the injury in a bout of friendly fire with team mate Kurt Tippett, said he thought his initial prognosis was going to be much worse than just two weeks.
“It was a little bit surprising,” Bird said.
“Initially we thought it could be four weeks out, so to come back and only miss two games is something I’m pretty pleased with.
“I trained (Thursday), but then will have a few more days off with the weekend and then I’ll be ready to go for next week.”
Bird, who has played in the Swans’ last two preliminary final clashes, said he expected the competition to shift up another gear in next week’s do-or-die clash at ANZ Stadium.
“It’s going to be really tough,” he said.
“Obviously it’s another step up from the qualifying final, so ... it’s going to be a tough contest.
“It’s a really important game for us, so hopefully we can get our training right and then look forward to next week.”
The midfielder said the team’s focus was on recovery and preparation this week, before shifting to the opposition next week.
“We haven’t really spoken about it too much, so we’ll just watch the game on Friday night and will see who gets up,” he said.
“We’ve just been worried about our own training and our own preparation and getting that right for next week.
“It’s a bit of a different feeling from last (year’s final series) as we were playing every week, but we’ll watch the game with the boys and will see who we will line up against.”
