AFTER spending a year out of the game, Sydney Swans rookie Kristin Thornton is more than a little nervous about returning to the field against the Western Bulldogs on Saturday night.

Thornton limped from the ground in a pre-season practice match against Port Adelaide last year with a torn anterior cruciate ligament that put his dreams of an AFL debut on hold for 12 months.

Fully recovered, the 21-year-old confessed to a mixture of excitement and anxiety at the Swans' final training session before the NAB Challenge clash.

"At the moment I’m a bit nervous. We’ll just get through training hopefully. I don’t know what I’ll be like [come Saturday]," he said.

"It’ll be interesting. It’s going to be like under-10s again, just getting ready for it. It’s been a very long time, so I can’t wait."

Thornton was in his third year on the Swans’ senior list when he sustained the knee injury, just a week after teammate Nick Malceski suffered his own.

Malceski returned to senior action in round eight after undergoing radical knee surgery in France but Thornton had a traditional reconstruction which made for a much longer rehabilitation.

Now on the rookie list, he said it had been a struggle to regain confidence in his injured joint, but the support from Malceski and others in the long-term rehab group had been invaluable.

"As soon as we got back out on the track together, we were sort of a little team within a team. We got around each other and helped each other out," Thornton said.

"You just enjoy it more when you’re out running around with everyone, instead of being with five blokes running laps. I’m sick of this oval, let me tell you that."

While the endless fitness work was a chore, it appears to have paid off with a raft of new personal best times in Thornton's pre-season assessments.

"If you go on that, I’m even more suited to the game now but we’ll see on the weekend. Hopefully I go alright, fingers crossed," he said.

He expects to play primarily across half-back against the Dogs, relieving Rhyce Shaw and Martin Mattner who have racked up plenty of game time in recent weeks.

And once Saturday night’s test is out of the way, Thornton has his sights set on the prize that has eluded him in his four seasons with the Swans – a senior debut.

"I just want to play footy and be injury free and then hopefully I play well and I can get my first game. It’s my fourth year now, so it’s been a while," he said.

"Any more games after that I’d be stoked, but just one game at the moment will do me fine."

Dream Team watch – Kristin Thornton is rated an $80,300 midfielder in Toyota AFL Dream Team 2009.