As he continues the road back from a significant foot injury, Cats’ small forward Cory Gregson is not willing to let bad luck get in the way of improvement.

The 20-year-old South Australian was ready to launch in 2016 after 20 games in his debut season a year prior, but was sent in for surgery in July to address a navicular stress fracture.

Halted in his tracks, progress has been expectedly slow though positive.

“It’s coming along well at the moment,” Gregson told Cats Media.

“I had a good solid week of running last week which was good. That’s definitely given me some confidence going into the pre-season.”

The next few months loom as crucial for Gregson and his aspirations in 2017. The overall aim will be to re-build his fitness base back to where it once was, and then find further improvement to return better than ever.

Having managed just nine games in 2016 after 20 in his debut season a year prior, Gregson knows improvement, despite the layoff, is a necessity – especially given good mate and fellow South Australian Lincoln McCarthy enjoyed a breakout season of his own in the role of small forward.

But rather than feel threatened, Gregson is hopeful of forming a formidable tandem with McCarthy to provide the Cats with their own mosquito fleet in 2017.

“He’s [McCarthy] my type of player and I felt like there wasn’t really enough of them [in 2016],” Gregson said.

“I feel like I can help Lincoln push into the midfield if he needs and then I can just be that link up player that the club, I felt, missed in the back end of the season.”

“I think we complement each other a lot, which is good. We’re two different types of player but we play in the same role so I think with both of us in the team it will be quite good.”

Watch the full pre-season interview with Cory Gregson in the video player above.