He was booked in for hip surgery following Balfours Showdown XXXIII and since then has undergone eight months of rehabilitation.
Often striking a lonely figure as he walked laps of Alberton Oval during pre-season training in November and December, his recovery gained pace after the playing group returned from its Christmas break.
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The emerging forward who burst onto the scene with four impressive performances on debut in 2011 has now reached another milestone.
He’s back playing footy.
Albeit in an internal trial for Port Adelaide’s SANFL side, the fact remains that Butcher is one step closer to returning to the AFL early this year.
Playing the equivalent of a half of football and looking in reasonable touch with a goal to his name, Butcher told portadelaidefc.com.au that his body felt the best it had for a game in a long time.
“I felt really good playing the internal for the Magpies and pulled up fine afterwards,” he said.
“My body felt good especially running, turning and jumping.”
Butcher trained fully on Monday morning and is slated to play in Port Adelaide’s SANFL trial against North Adelaide at Alberton on Saturday and possibly against Glenelg on Thursday 21.
His enthusiasm is evident after an arduous recovery period.
Injury rehabilitation can be one of the toughest times for an AFL footballer; not being part of the main group as it drills itself through long and hot summers.
Yet his determined approach to recovery has seen him return a fortnight earlier than anticipated and has him focussed on pushing for an AFL return.
"It's been a long time since the surgery in early August and it's been a long and slow period recovering,” he said.
"I finally got back running after Christmas and built it up over a month or so.
"I got back out there with the boys and started joining in the warmup and had a few good weeks with training drills and have now started doing contact and match simulation stuff."
“If I can get full game time under my belt with the Maggies then it will be dependent on form (as to eventual AFL selection).”
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