Tom Murphy is champing at the bit to break back into North Melbourne’s senior side, after overcoming a serious ankle injury.

After four games in 2018, Murphy intends to make the most of his next AFL opportunity when it comes.

“When you’re playing footy, I feel you can kind of take it for granted, so being away from it, you realise how much you miss it,” Murphy told North Media.

“I just want to get back out there and hopefully play some more AFL games. The VFL is good for my development, but I really want to push to play AFL because that’s why I’m here. I feel that if I was able to play senior footy again, I would take the opportunity with both hands.”

The 21-year-old defender was struck down with a serious ankle injury in Round 2 of the VFL against Casey this year, which sidelined him for over a month. He returned to full training this week, and intends on featuring for North's VFL side next weekend.

“I tore my medial ligament and also did my lateral ligament in my left ankle,” he said.

“It’s been five weeks now, and the progress has been pretty good. I was back into full training on Wednesday, and it felt good. I hit some high speeds and did some change of direction running which was really positive.”

The injury came at a time when Murphy felt he was on the verge of an AFL recall.

“It was frustrating because I was feeling good earlier in the year,” he said.

“I played JLT1 and had some things to go back and work on in the VFL, and I felt like I worked on those things really well. I was going well for a good month, so to do this was unfortunate, but I’m back on the horse.”

The rookie credits much of his recent development to new assistant coach Rhyce Shaw, who he says has been forthright in feedback.

“Shawy’s been really good for me,” Murphy said.

“Earlier in the year, I had some things to work on and he was pretty straight forward and assertive with what he wanted me to do. Now I feel like my leadership, direction and knowledge of structures has gone through the roof.”

Veteran teammate Shaun Atley has also been a valuable asset.

“I want to become a big, metres gained player and I want to improve my ability to come off my man and be an intercept marker,” he added.

“That comes with reading the play better, being a better one-on-one defender and going when it’s my turn to go.

“I’ve been doing my individual review with Shaun, and he has been really good since he’s moved down back by just showing me the way he takes the game on. It’s good to have Ats, someone who I want to play like, work closely with me.”