COLLINGWOOD forward Brent Macaffer has spoken of his recent battle with a foot fracture, and of the groin injury that required pain-killing injections to get him through the Magpies' 2010 finals series.

The 23-year-old has endured a wretched run of luck since hurting his groin in the final rounds of last year's home-and-away season, and has not played any football since round five of the VFL this year because of his injured foot.

As the Pies enter round 14, Macaffer is ready to resume in the VFL and hopes his fortunes are finally starting to change after returning from a "freshening" trip to Arizona for an altitude training boost.

"The foot problem started earlier in the year. I had a cracked fracture that I did in the round two game against the Kangaroos where I went to kick the ball and someone ran across the front of my foot," he told afl.com.au this week.

"Instead of kicking the ball, I ended up kicking the front of their shin."

Macaffer couldn't run, or "get out of third gear", or even kick the ball properly but still tried to play with the injury for a few weeks.

A decision to put him out to pasture for a few months was made after the Pies' one-point win over North Ballarat on April 30; a planned hiatus that would culminate in the trip to Arizona with Dane Swan, Darren Jolly and Nathan Brown.

"We've all had our little injuries and what not, and I really enjoyed the trip," he said.

"It was great to get away for a couple of weeks because I've been in the rehab group and just to get to a different environment where there was different training.

"It was fantastic and I've come back a lot mentally fresher as well, and a lot fitter and ready to go."

Macaffer, who had a breakout year at senior level in 2010 and played 21 games after just five the year before, said it was painful to watch his premiership teammates in the first half of the season as he rehabilitated.

In reality, the former rookie was lucky to have been part of the grand final triumph at all having seriously injured his groin on the eve of September.

"It happened about round 20, round 21, and it wasn't too bad but in the prelim and the grand finals, it got pretty sore and I ended up having to get injections before the game and at half-time to allow me to get through," he said.

"It wasn't classified as OP but it was similar. It was more from the pelvis. When I went and got scans from it, there was a tear in the pelvis and that threw everything else out and put a lot of pressure on the other muscles in my body."

Macaffer didn't want to entertain the idea of missing games but admitted he had moments of doubt as the Pies went through their paces at training.

"It played on my mind a little bit when I was struggling to kick the ball more than 30, 35 metres, but I was always going to play in my mind," he said.

"There was no doubt that was going to be an issue and the injections helped it a lot and got rid of a lot of that pain for a quarter or a half so I didn't feel it then.

"I was lucky enough to get through and stay in the side and be part of a premiership."

The groin issue "hung around" across the pre-season, despite Macaffer's best attempts to rest over the break, which meant his summer program was restricted from the word go.

However, if there was anything positive to come from the most recent complaint, it was the fact it enabled him to fully put the other soreness behind him. 

"The groins were nearly all good and that extra time gave me more of a chance to make sure it was better," he said.

"I had a bit of an interrupted start to the season but hopefully it's all out of the way now and it's all good from here on in."

Macaffer will line up in the VFL on Sunday against Sandringham with Jolly, and hopes it's the beginning of his climb back up to the highest level.

"To be out there training all this week and to be injury-free, and just knowing if I can string a couple of games together in the VFL and get my match fitness up, then I'll be back and hopefully be part of it," he said.

"It's my first game in a long time so I'm looking forward to that and hopefully I can get through unscathed."