The 33-year-old’s injured body is battling to heal.
Charlie Dixon, a hulking Port Adelaide forward, can see the end in sight.
He has been in the AFL for so long that he has lost count of the seasons. This pre-season, he acknowledges he is “sore” and struggling.
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Dixon has confessed to 7NEWS that he is still rehabbing from the broken foot that ended his season late last year.
And, as the 33-year-old suffers through another delayed preseason, he believes this could be his final season.
“We will see what happens at the end of the year, if I’m still playing or not,” said Dixon to Seven.
“Hey, if it is, it is … but I’m gonna do everything I can, like I do every year, to try and win.”
But the years are starting to mount up for Dixon, who was chosen by the Gold Coast Suns in 2009.
When most players begin the year feeling relatively fresh, Dixon is already feeling it.
He’s had a groyne issue that has limited his training in recent weeks, and the foot he injured in August is still bothering him.
“I fractured one of the bones in there, so that’s been the longest one (to recover) through this pre-season,” he went on to say.
“Other than that it’s just normal soreness and all that sort of stuff.”
Port Adelaide has a new crop of leaders this year, and Dixon believes the club’s youth will keep him young.
“I’m just excited to still be a part of it,” he told reporters.
“They’re probably the reason that I’m still sort of hanging around at the moment.”
But Dixon will face a battle to get into the team, even when he’s ready to play.
Port Adelaide has recruited two new talls to their roster, Ivan Soldo and Jordon Sweet, as well as Dante Visentini, forward-ruck option Jeremy Finlayson, and emerging key forward Tod Marshall.
Marshall will be the front-six general this year, but there is also young key forward Ollie Lord (who showed promise last year) and injured forward Mitch Georgiades, who is awaiting his comeback from an ACL rupture.
