SEARING temperatures confronted North Melbourne players at training on Friday but nothing was going to stop Liam Anthony from participating in his first full session since slicing his left ring finger on a glass lamp two months ago.

“I was pretty excited about getting back out there today.  It’s been about eight to ten weeks I think on the sidelines so I was pretty happy to be able to touch the footballs again,” Anthony told kangaroos.com.au.

The outside midfielder’s spirits were lifted after he was given the green light by club medical staff to have a protective guard removed from his hand and resume pre-season training.

“It feels pretty good now. I’ve got full extension of my finger now and I can clench my fist properly but it’s pretty swollen so the physios will have to help me out with that a fair bit.  Today I trained fully but I was marking on my chest so in the coming weeks I’ll start grabbing the pill with my hands and everything will return to normal.”

The 22-year-old required surgery after the incident in Albury.

“I sliced my finger across my knuckle and my left ring finger tendon has been attached to the left small finger tendon.  There’s a bit of a scar there but no major damage which is good.”

Anthony was sidelined for several weeks ahead of the club’s first NAB match in 2009 after succumbing to stress fractures in his foot but says he’s far from used to being in the rehabilitation group.

“I haven’t really been injured before and I’d played most of my footy in juniors and in the WAFL injury free so it has been pretty frustrating being out.”

However the West Australian is quick to point out there has been an upside to this latest injury.

“I’ve been able to concentrate on my fitness and I feel fitter than I ever have at this time of year and that’s probably withy regard to endurance type running.  Hopefully over the next few weeks and at our pre-season camp on the Gold Coast I will start to get that ‘footy running’ back and start getting the sprint and agility running back.  Then come our first our first intra-club match in February I’ll be flying with all things going well.”

North Melbourne forward Aaron Edwards also returned to the training track after surgery to repair an injured thumb.

Like Anthony, Edwards was allowed to participate in a full session for the first time in months.