COLLINGWOOD defender Nathan Brown has revealed he is close to regaining full fitness, joking that he was hoping for another Grand Final draw so he could push for selection.

In February, Brown underwent a traditional reconstruction after rupturing his right anterior cruciate ligament. He was then sent to train at high altitude in Arizona in June in a bid to make a comeback in time for the Pies' finals push, but slipped on a trail and split his left kneecap into two pieces. 

"With my ACL [recovery] I went over to Arizona to get that fitness springboard back to have an impact toward the end of this year and in particular the finals series," Brown said from Federation Square in Melbourne on Thursday.

"I was fully training over there and ready to come back, but everyone knows what happened there.

"I was pretty close to coming back and playing again [after] that setback, but I guess time [ran out]. I'm sort of hoping for another draw maybe."

Brown attended the camp with teammates Dane Swan, Darren Jolly and Brent Macaffer.

Swan has since won the Brownlow Medal, Jolly is battling a groin strain to play in another Grand Final and Macaffer, who played in the Pies' 2010 premiership, has dropped out of Mick Malthouse's best 22.

Brown knows all too well how it feels to be on the outside looking in, having been initially overlooked in favour of veteran defender Simon Prestigiacomo in Collingwood's Grand Final squad last year.

"I was thinking in the car on the way here that's it's selection day, the same day last year that I was told that I wasn't going to play, then all that drama happened with me," he said referring to Prestigiacomo's now-famous call to voluntarily withdraw from the team due to a quad injury.

"It's been a year that's gone pretty quick, so I sort of know what these fringe guys are actually going through.

"It is a tough time and a roller coaster time. It's something that I know, looking back on it now, I don't look upon as a negative. It's something that I've bottled to help me with the rest of my career."

Brown admits it has been a frustrating year, but is hopeful he will get the opportunity to be envious of his teammates after Saturday's Grand Final.

"I know that I'll be in the rooms on Saturday and I hope and wish that I will be jealous of every single one of those guys who gets to go out there and play in a Grand Final [win]," he said.

"But I'll bottle it and remember it."  

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs