COLLINGWOOD midfielder Brodie Holland believes he must make a return to senior football this year if he's to continue his AFL career.

Holland, 28, has endured three seasons of achilles-related pain after initially injuring the foot in round 10, 2006.

Since then, he has been restricted to just 24 senior games (he was also suspended for six games at the start of 2007), with just one match this year, in round five.

The tough on-baller has been battling soreness since that senior clash against North Melbourne back in April, and has been unable to play at any level since.

With an aim to return to the VFL in two weeks, Holland knows time is short.

"There are no guarantees at all at the moment," he told collingwoodfc.com.au.

"I'm on a one-year contract because of the injury last year, and they just wanted to see how it came up this year.

"It was going great guns by round four or five, and I hadn't missed a game in the VFL and hadn't had any soreness, or just a tiny bit, if anything.

"If I can get back to that, which is how I'm feeling now and maintain that for the rest of the year … I'll have to play some good games at senior level though.

"If I can prove this achilles is fine and get back into the team for finals, it's probably the only way I'm going to save myself."

Holland had an operation at the end of last season to relieve the symptoms of Haglund's Syndrome – a type of inflammation at the back of the heel caused by chronic tendonitis. He has been sore ever since.

He thought he was over the worst when he played three VFL games across March and April, and was on the road to recovery when he broke into the seniors for round five.

"It felt pretty good at the time so I just ran with it, but when I got back to senior level I hurt it in the first quarter," he said, of the Kangaroos match.

After feeling "something rip", Holland went back into recovery mode for two weeks. But once he began running, the soreness returned.

"I'm going to leave it until it's almost right, and then have a crack because if I've come this far, I may as well wait a bit more and get it as right as I possibly can," he said.

"That's what I've done and it's pretty good at the moment."

The experienced Magpie believes he still has plenty to offer if he can break into the seniors.

"I'm confident in my own ability that if I can get back and play without soreness, that I can get back to senior level and play well. I've never had that doubt in my ability," he said.

Realising that the end of his 11-year career could be nigh has kept him plugging away in recovery, Holland said.

"In recovery I've been plugging away and trying to keep myself in reasonable nick, thinking, 'Is this ever going to come right?'"

"If I can't get back this year, that could be it. It's always been in the back of my mind, it's been a motivation for me because it makes you desperate to hang in there.

"If my achilles isn't right, I'll probably retire anyway because I couldn't possibly play with soreness for the rest of my career."

If Holland is forced into retirement, he'll be disappointed – although he has realised in the past few years that there's more to life than playing football.

"I'm getting married at the end of the year, so I'm as happy as Larry," he said.

"It's a win-win situation for me because at the end of the day, if there's no football, I can get on with life and move onto the next part of it.

"If the achilles is good, I can keep doing what I love to do, but if I can't, I can get married, start a family, and maybe even do a bit of travelling in between.

"That's the worst case scenario if it all goes bust, and that's still pretty good."