COLLINGWOOD'S Dayne Beams has spoken about his battle to recover from the mystery shin complaint that derailed his pre-season and postponed his return to the senior side until round two.

The 22-year-old, who famously withdrew from last year's Grand Final because of the groin injury he developed in the preliminary final, was struck down by shin soreness in both legs earlier this year.

He had no history of problems in either leg, and had even been training lightly because of a minor cork right before the pain developed.

He said the strange complaint had the club's medical staff baffled.

"It's just one of those ones you can't control," Beams told AFL.com.au after his first AFL game for the year against Richmond on Easter Saturday. 

"It just takes rest. It's a stress-related injury and the only way to fix it is by staying off it.

"I'm not too sure how it actually happened. It was a bit of a strange one because two weeks before it, I missed a couple of weeks so I came back and trained, and it sort of just came on.

"They usually come on with just too much load but I really just stayed off my legs for two weeks before it happened.

"It was an interesting one but we're on top of it now."

Beams' injury developed in both legs at the same time, although his right leg was initially sorer to begin with.

He was treated predominantly with rest, and later, cortisone injections. All up, he missed over a month of training.

"It was exactly the same as shin splints but it's higher up on my shins, just below my knees. It's more my patella," Beams said.

"It was just a weird feeling, not comfortable. It wasn't comfortable to train so the best option for it was to take a few weeks off.

"I think I missed about five weeks with it and in that time, I worked hard. I did a lot of cross training although nothing compared to match fitness and those two VFL games really helped me."

Beams returned to the field in a VFL practice match ahead of the AFL's round one, and then played a full match against Geelong last week after the seniors lost to Hawthorn on Friday night.

He said he was more nervous before Saturday night's 21-point win over Richmond than he was ahead of his debut game in 2009.

But, he was glad to get his first senior hit-out for the year out of the way, and to collect 22 touches and have five clearances across it.

"I ran out of puff a bit in that last quarter but it was good to get through and the boys to get their first four points," he said.

"I didn't play many intra-club games and I didn't play any NAB Cup so it was important for me to play those couple of VFL games and get those miles in my legs.

"I feel better for it and hopefully I contributed a bit."

Jennifer Witham is a reporter for AFL Media. Follow her on Twitter @AFL_JenWitham.