THE UNCERTAINTY surrounding Alex Johnson's future was tough for the luckless Swan to deal with.

Johnson, who has had 12 knee surgeries since he first ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in 2013, was delisted at the end of the season but allowed to continue training with the Swans.

However, the 25-year-old was given no guarantee of being picked up.

The 2012 premiership player was selected at No.36 in last Monday's rookie draft and he spoke to sydneyswans.com.au about his recent difficulties.

"It's obviously been pretty frustrating the last few weeks, not really knowing what was going on, but in terms of that period, the club's been pretty good in terms of letting me know what's going on," Johnson said. 

"Once you get delisted, you are up for grabs by any other club or anything can transpire, so I'm rapt to be put on the rookie list and have another crack at it.

"It's taken up a lot of my mind and my thinking patterns over the last couple of months, really. You're sort of thinking about the unknown and you're not too sure what's going on, so I'm rapt to be able to put that behind me and concentrate on pre-season."

This pre-season will be the first time he will have a full summer of training since that first knee operation, more than four years ago.

After making a successful NEAFL return in July, Johnson played out the season before enjoying a well-deserved break.

"I sat down with the physios and the medical team here and it was a big focus for me to go away and have some time off," Johnson said.

"I took five or six weeks off, doing no activity at all, which was good for my body, just to recuperate after what was a big year getting back to playing AFL, or getting back to playing footy, I suppose, week in, week out, for the last 10 or so weeks of the year."