Injuries are a part of football, but that doesn’t make them any easier for players to deal with.

Whether it is a one week spell or a long-term issue, injuries keep players off the training track and can separate them from the fit playing group for the duration of their recovery.

According to injured Swans’ utility Matt Spangher, positivity is the key to keeping both physical and mental recovery on track.

“The most important part of the whole operation is to stay positive and stay involved because you don’t want to be too ostracised from the group, which is something you can feel when you’re on the outer in general because you’re doing different programs and training at a different time of the day,” Spangher told sydneyswans.com.au this week.

“I find it a no brainer to stay positive, but I know that there are blokes out there who find it hard to stay positive all the time, especially if there are repeated setbacks.

“Trying to be as positive as you can so the boys actually want to hang out with you is a big part of enjoying what we do, even in the worst times of you career.”

The former West Coast Eagle, who joined the Swans at the end of 2010, has had to battle injuries for a large stretch of his AFL career.

Injury early in his time at the Eagles limited him to just 26 games in three seasons with the club, before injury struck again in his first year at the Swans, preventing Spangher from donning the red and white for the seniors until round 16 in the Gold Coast.

This year, another hamstring injury has seen the 24-year-old on the sidelines, but Spangher said he is adamant his latest setback won’t get him down or hold him back this season.

“Even in my career at the Eagles I was dogged by injury and I didn’t play much footy in my first two years of being on an AFL list, but I’ve generally always been a pretty positive person anyway and I know that injuries are part of what we do,” he said.

“Footy is a long season and I know it’s a bit of a cliché, but it does go for a while, and last year I was fortunate to be ready at the right time of the season and play some finals.

“I’m just hoping it doesn’t take as long to recuperate and get back in the team again, but it should be fine.”

Spangher is hopeful that he is only weeks away from returning to the training track full-time, and a further fortnight from having his first taste of football for the year.

“Initially I tore my hamstring at the end of January quite significantly and it was six-to-eight weeks, but then at week six or seven I re-tore it again doing some run throughs,” he said.

“That set me back a couple more weeks, so I think it’s been almost 10 weeks now, but hopefully I’ll get into some training next week, so there is a light at the end of the tunnel at the moment.

“As far as games played, I’m probably another two weeks away at least before I put my hand up to play a few minutes in the reserves and then obviously form and how the body holds up with impact on senior selection.”

While Spangher has had enough experience to deal with the frustrations of injury, a long term injury can be even harder for a player in the early stages of the AFL system.

Swans rookie Eugene Kruger faced a setback this pre-season, with an iliotibial band injury keeping him off the training track since January.

“(The injury) meant that I couldn’t train and I couldn’t run, and had to instead do all the fitness components with the physios, which was a bit upsetting, but it happens,” Kruger said.

The South African-born player, whose strength has always been his running ability and athleticism, experienced life on the sidelines for the first time but said he was able to find positives out of his experience.

“It was frustrating,” he said.

“It was a bit hard when I got the news that I was going to have surgery, I was a bit upset about it, but I just had a chat to my mentor and my parents about it and I decided to make myself some goals while I was injured and thought about where I want to be when I come back.

“It is difficult, but there is always an advantage to being injured in a way because it gave me a really good chance to try and put on some size and go to the gym, which I haven’t had the opportunity to do.

“You can always find a benefit out of being injured and I used the other kinds of fitness components to try and get better and bigger.

“I think it’s just about getting the best out of a bad situation.”