When Lincoln McCarthy first walked into Simonds Stadium as an 18-year-old in 2011, he was a footballer.

But as the boy from Bordertown, South Australia has slowly discovered, the life of a footballer can be rather tough without the football.

His career thus far has amounted to five senior games in four years – the last of which was the Cats semi-final loss to North Melbourne in 2014.

McCarthy’s entire 2013 season was wiped out due to a navicular bone injury in his foot. He then spent a further 12 weeks on the sidelines with a back injury in 2014 – though did scrape together four games at AFL level before another severe foot injury ruled him out for 2015.

“There’s been times when I’ve thought I had a decent run at it, started playing good footy, and then there was an injury,” McCarthy reflected.

“I guess there’s been times that have been pretty good and I feel like I’m getting somewhere and then it comes to a halt.”

It’s an unfortunate resume that makes you wonder just how many black cats McCarthy has crossed paths with, or how many mirrors he may have broken since draft day.

But to his credit, the now 22-year-old has never been consumed by his bad luck.

“Being injured isn’t great but you can always be productive in some sort of way,” McCarthy said.

“That’s probably all I’ve tried to do. You might find out you’re out for six months, but you think, what way can I be productive in those six months.”

When a player asks those sorts of questions, Claire Mitchell-Taverner and the player development team find the answers.

An Olympic gold medallist with the Hockeyroos in her own right, Mitchell-Taverner saw the need to open McCarthy’s eyes as to what he could achieve away from the football field. 

“We worked pretty hard on identifying the need for him [McCarthy] to be working on things outside of football to help him stay motivated and interested in being here,” Mitchell-Taverner said.

 “To give him that sense that the pressure was off him a bit because he’d always have something to do if footy didn’t work out.”

“He’s just really optimistic about what’s next. His resilience and his ability to really keep his eye on what he needs to do has been amazing.”

“I think there’s a lot of athletes who could probably learn a lot from him.”

With every game missed through injury, McCarthy has ironically been increasing his knowledge in field of health science.

He’s completed various diplomas and courses with an eye to the future, and is currently finalising studies in personal training – supported ably by Mitchell-Taverner.

“Claire has just made everything seem doable,” he said.

“I would’ve probably taken a backwards step and thought ‘I’m not real sure about doing this’ but as soon as I’ve said something she’s straight onto it and looking into pathways and how it can happen.”

“I’ve always been interested in the health side of things. When I got injured, I was learning a lot of stuff about the body in rehab – spending a lot of time with doctors and physios – and I really thought I’d like to do what they do.”

Whilst McCarthy has been kicking goals off the field, the best news of all is that the speedy forward has finally moved from the rehab group to full training with the same endeavour he’s shown in his studies.

And no matter how gruelling each session this summer may be for the Cats, there’s certainly one footballer you won’t hear complaining.

“You don’t take things for granted when you’ve missed the last two of three years,” McCarthy said.