Despite undergoing four knee reconstructions, Geelong’s unlucky Cat Daniel Menzel says the club has never made him feel as though his career was in peril.  

“The best thing about that, that I rate really highly of the footy club is they’ve said to me every time I’ve done my knee, they’ve given me that assurance that everything will be all right, and that just takes that out of your mind completely,” Menzel told News Limited.

“People ask me about future and career and contracts and to be honest, I say I haven’t even thought about that because I haven’t had to because the club’s given me that guarantee.

Although nothing has been put in concrete for next year, Menzel hopes he can make a quick return to the field so he can again prove his worth as an AFL footballer.

However Menzel, who hasn’t played at senior level since the 2011 qualifying final, says he wouldn’t expect the club to give him anything more than a one-year contract.

“That’s more than what I could ask for from the club, they’d be brave to offer me more than one year, if I was in their position I certainly wouldn’t be offering more than one year,” Menzel laughed.

“It’ll be nice to just play and hopefully let my footy do the talking.”

In the next couple of weeks Menzel hopes to make his return to the running track and be in full training by the time preseason begins.

“I’m hoping to be back on the track in a couple of weeks and running, then towards finals hopefully be back into agility drills, some sort of training with the team maybe,” Menzel said.

“Then when the boys finish up that’s when I’ll be starting to get into full training, have a little break and come day one of pre-season hopefully do everything with the boys and have a full pre-season to have a real, genuine crack at it.”