GEELONG youngster Josh Cowan is confident that the achilles tendon problems that have derailed his promising career are finally over.

Last month the 22-year-old midfielder travelled to London where he was operated on by the world's leading tendon injury expert.

He returned pain free and confident that he'll be fit enough to return to the fray in the second half of the season.

"I've come back feeling really good," Cowan told AFL.com.au.

"My recovery is moving along pretty fast, so I'm really happy with how it's all going."

After making his AFL debut in 2011, Cowan was sidelined by achilles soreness for the entirety of last season.

He seemed to be over the problem when he trained strongly during the first half of Geelong's pre-season, only for the injury to then flare again.

But in a sign of how highly the club rates Cowan, the Cats decided a trip to London to try and get to the bottom of the issue was worth the expense.

"It felt pretty good to know that the club supported me and were going to send me all the way over there to get me right and give me the best chance to get back and play some football," Cowan said.

"I went over there with my girlfriend. We got there a week before my operation and had a bit of a look around.

"It was my first time in London. It was great."

The operation, which took place on March 19, was such a success that Cowan was able to walk around without crutches only four days after he went under the knife.

"I was moving pretty freely, without any pain, so I haven't had to go back to the crutches at all," he explained.

"At first I was thinking I was going to be on the crutches for a long time and it was going to be a tough couple of months, but I was very relieved that it didn't pan out that way."

Cowan is aiming to step up his training load in the coming weeks.

"Now it's just about getting back to the club, getting back into some weights and doing some work to strengthen up my legs," he said.

"By getting a lot of strength into my legs, I should be able to take a lot of pressure off my achilles when I start running again.

"I'm feeling pretty confident now that I should be over the injury once and for all."

As for when he'll play again, neither Cowan nor the club are putting a date on it.

"I've just got to get my rehab done and get back to running," Cowan said.

"The rest of it is a bit of an unknown at the minute. I'm just taking things slow and trying to get everything right so that I can get back to playing."

Adam McNicol covers Geelong news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter at @AFL_AdamMcNicol