Lachie Schultz's heart initially sank when he heard the "S" word mentioned.
The Collingwood forward hurt his ankle in the round-18 AFL win over North Melbourne and the diagnosis was syndesmosis - potentially, a season-ending injury.
But he only missed two games and the break neatly coincided with his fiance Maddie giving birth to their first child, Archie.
After a rollercoaster few weeks, the new dad will be a key member of the re-cast Magpies attack for Friday night's historic first wildcard final against the Western Bulldogs at the MCG.
"It's (been) a very big month. When it rains it pours, and that's been the case," Schultz told AAP.
"In the past, whenever the word 'syndesmosis' is mentioned, it seems to be a three-month injury, doesn't it?
"It seemed pretty bad. Then the scans came back and it gave me a lot of hope."
As soon as they had the scans - which showed the problem was low-grade - Schultz and high-performance boss Jarrod Wade went to work.
"I said 'I'm all-in, what do I need to do to get back as fast as I can?' We just launched this attack on it, this rehab, and it progressed really, really well," Schultz said.
As if all that wasn't enough, this month Schultz and former teammate Darcy Tucker launched an athletic underwear business. So going home and switching to "dad life" has been a welcome perspective amid the chaos.
While Schultz is not pain-free, there was no way he was going to miss out on Collingwood's finals tilt.
Despite not having any of the club's leading goalkickers from the last seven seasons, the Magpies have fashioned a well-drilled attack that will ask searching questions of any defence in this finals series.
Coached by Tyson Goldsack - very much a team-first player throughout his AFL career - the Collingwood attack has overcome a succession of injuries and absences this season.
"We pride ourselves on having team goals, not individual goals. We're sort of a team within a team in our forward line," Schultz said.
"That's just the buy-in, all over. And it's really contagious.
"It's a good terminology, the junkyard dogs. You're right, we've had such a reliable back six for the last few years and I guess we've taken a leaf out of their book ... how reliable they are.
"It's the benchmark for us."
