After 12 months on the sidelines due to an ACL injury, Judson Clarke made his much-anticipated return to football in the VFL's Round 5 clash against Casey last Thursday.

On tonight’s episode of Forging Forward, Clarke gives a detailed recollection of his "resilient" journey back to playing competitive footy.

“I’m pretty resilient,” Clarke said.

“It’s not the nicest thing, rehabbing and sitting on the sidelines for 12 months, watching your best mates go out there.

“It can get really lonely at times, but I think having the other guys that I did it with was just awesome. The camaraderie and the competitiveness that it brought to the rehab process made it so much easier.

“It can be a pretty dark place if you are by yourself.”

Clarke ruptured his right ACL in last year’s VFL match against Werribee, the same ACL he injured previously in 2019.

“When I was 16, I tore my ACL for the first time. I was back in school then,” Clarke said.

“I thought, I’ve done this before, and I know what to do and every day I got posed with a new challenge that I hadn’t faced before with my previous ACL.

“With this one, I was able to walk quicker, but there has been more pain throughout the whole journey, whereas with my first one, there was very little pain, but I wasn’t walking for like two weeks.”

Clarke has now entered his fourth year at Richmond, having played in 17 AFL matches since he was selected at pick number 30 in the 2021 AFL draft.

The agile forward made his debut against Port Adelaide in Round 13 of the 2022 season, where he kicked two goals with his first two kicks in AFL football.

Despite a hard 12 months away from the game, Clarke has found ways to stay positive whilst on the sidelines.

“For me, when I go home, I try not to think about footy,” Clarke said.

“Home is my reset. I can just chill out and be with my family, and I have started a bit of uni as well, which gives me balance.”

The 21-year-old spoke to the mental side of rehab and how he had to train and build upon his physical and mental fortitude to get himself primed for a return to football.

“A lot of doing your ACL is mental and I think that’s what takes the longest,” Clarke said.

“Day in day out, you are working on your technique and execution on how your feet work, but it’s not until you are doing drills again where it is more that mental side that hasn’t had any exposure to catch up.

“So that’s definitely one of the biggest, if not the biggest part, to returning to play.”

Clarke credited the work he has done with former 280-game player for North Melbourne, and now Richmond development coach, Jack Ziebell, for supporting him in his journey back to playing competitively.

“He has been great for me,” Clarke said. 

“He has been the coach that has helped me bridge the gap between rehab training and team training.

“I’m so grateful for him. He has helped me get up to speed with the game, the pace, the physicality and all those sorts of things.

“He has been terrific for me and has helped me develop my skills whilst not being in drills with the group.”

Clarke competed in his first game of competitive football since his injury in the VFL’s Round 5 match against Casey on managed minutes.

The skilful left-footer admitted that he is striving to get back to playing at AFL level as quickly as he can, but is grateful to just be able to compete again.

“I obviously want to get back playing in the ones as soon as I can,” Clarke said.

“But I’m just most looking forward to playing footy again.

“I haven’t really set any goals, if I’m being honest, I just want to play.

“Having what you love doing taken away from you for so long, I think that all you really look forward to is just going out there to have a run around and kick the footy around.”

Tune into tonight’s episode of Forging Forward at 7pm on the Richmond website for a further deep dive on Clarke’s resilient journey.