PORT Adelaide's David Rodan has joined his teammates at training for the first time since rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament in December.

Rodan, 26, moved freely in Tuesday’s training session at AAMI Stadium, completing all non-competitive drills without incident.

Thursday will mark 11 weeks to the day since Rodan underwent revolutionary LARS (Ligament and Augmentation Reconstructive System) surgery to repair the partially torn ligament in his knee.

In 2008, Sydney Swans defender Nick Malceski returned to the field just 12 weeks after having the LARS procedure.

Carlton utility Brad Fisher is using the Malceski time frame as a guide for his recovery from the same surgery, but the Power are refusing - at least publicly - to budge from a mid-season-return for Rodan.

Port Adelaide has placed Rodan on the long-term injury list, making him ineligible for selection until at least round two.

Power teammate Danyle Pearce said the players hoped to have Rodan back sooner rather than later.

“He [Rodan] has done a tremendous amount of work behind closed doors," Pearce said. "He’s doing a lot of boxing and stationary work and then he comes out on the track and you see him flying around the oval.

“This morning when the whole team found out that he was going to train with us it brought a smile to everyone’s face. He looked a bit nervous. I was sitting there watching him and I gave him a word or two here and there.

“I don’t think even David has a [return] date in his mind. He’s just taking it week by week and seeing how the knee pulls up after every session. He’s really looking forward to getting back and he just wants to get back into his normal routine.”

Port Adelaide was tipped to struggle this season, as the club searches for replacements for former stars Shaun and Peter Burgoyne and Brendon Lade, but an impressive NAB Cup campaign has brought renewed optimism at Alberton.

The Power have won their first two pre-season hit-outs, against Adelaide and West Coast, by an average of 67 points but Pearce said his side wasn’t getting carried away with its scorching summer form.

“After a couple of NAB Cup games and an internal trial we’ve seen that the things we’ve been working on are really starting to show and it does bring that confidence within the group, but from day one we’ve acknowledged that finals are where we want to be and we haven’t changed those expectations,” he said.

“Everyone sets their goals really high. We’re surprising a lot of people, so hopefully we can keep on improving and getting better as each week goes by.”

The Power will take on the in-form Western Bulldogs in the NAB Cup semi-final at Etihad Stadium on Friday night.

Pearce said his team would have to take another step up to topple the Dogs and win through to the grand final.

“We were really happy with our performance on the weekend, but we understand that the Western Bulldogs are one of the benchmarks of the competition," he said.

"They were a kick out of making the grand final last year, so it’s going to be a great test and it’ll be good to see where we’re standing after this weekend.”