JUST three months after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament in a NAB Cup game against Hawthorn, Sydney Swans’ defender Nick Malceski will play for the seniors this Sunday against Essendon at ANZ Stadium. He will start on the bench but is expected to play 60 to 80 minutes of the contest.

Sunday marks just 86 days since he underwent a revolutionary knee reconstruction which saw him have industrial-strength synthetic fibre inserted into his knee instead of rebuilding by traditional methods.

“You couldn’t not pick him after the way he trained,” Paul Roos said.

“I spoke to him after Wednesday’s session just to give him an idea what we were thinking if he did get through and I think initially he was a little bit shocked that we would be talking about him playing seniors but interestingly enough today before he started training he said he had his head firmly on playing in the seniors on Sunday. I think it typified his attitude through the whole process. He’s always been really positive.”

However Swans’ doctor Nathan Gibbs said the club would not be celebrating just yet.

“We’re having a big press conference but we’re certainly not out of the woods in terms of him getting through, not just the weekend’s game but many more games to come, so I’m not going to be celebrating until the year is over and he’s had a good season and he’s gone well and his knee has gone well,” Gibbs said.

“It would be a great thing if it works not just for Nick’s case but anyone else in sports’ medicine whether it’s a high profile or an amateur player to make a 12 month recovery just three is fantastic.”

Roos was also subscribing to the no-celebration theory.

“We’re standing here now and we’re excited about having him playing, but we’re not expecting him to set the world on fire on Sunday. Equally when I’m on the beach in Maui at the end of the year, I’ll look back and have a quiet drink about it but it won’t be Sunday and it won’t be the week after that (that I’ll celebrate).”

By all accounts, Malceski withstood the rigours of a tough training session to prove his fitness.

“Craig Bolton did a favour for him today when he landed on his knee, which was nice of Craig, but perhaps not in the script but he got up from that and no problem so it was probably a good thing as well,” Gibbs said.

Dr. Gibbs said he began researching the procedure 12 months ago, and was encouraged to go ahead with the operation due to the fact that French surgeon J.P. Laboureau, who has extensive experience in performing the procedure, was in Australia at the time and was available to supervise the operation which was carried out by Danny Biggs. But Gibbs said he is all too aware that the very public test of the revolutionary procedure will attract a lot of attention.

“The critics and skeptics would say there’s a high rupture rate for this sort of procedure and that used to be the case definitely. The overseas experience … would say that the re-rupture rate is the same as the traditional operation which is about one in four, one in five break down again.”

Roos revealed he won’t be overly nervous watching the defender run out on to the park on Sunday.

“I don’t think so but Gibbsy will,” he laughed.

“I think the reality is one in four guys do it anyway (re-rupture). I suppose if it happens the skeptics will come out and say it was the operation. What Nathan and the other guys would say is that he’s got through the operation but that doesn’t mean he’s not going to do it, regardless of the way the operation’s happened.”

However Roos was keen to insist that the 23-year-old is upbeat, even taking the time for some personal grooming ahead of his return match.

“He’s got a new hair cut and you’ll probably see that,” Roos said. “I think that’s a statement he made before training to be honest… I think it says he confident and he went out and trained like that so I might go and get one myself.”