It’s been a journey that’s stemmed across two seasons but Avondale FC’s young centre-back Dean Campelj is set for a return to the first-team picture after earning promotion back onto the team roster during the NPL transfer window.
A bright professional career started at Green Gully where in two seasons in their Under 20’s he won the Player of the Year (2012) and came runner up the year after. The then 19-year-old joined the club in 2013 during Avondale’s successful State League 2 season, where he was a mainstay in a defence that shipped just 21 goals in 22 games.
Upon earning an inaugural licence to the NPL1, Campelj once again maintained his position at the heart of defence, with the initial project player well and truly established in the first-team. He played a major role in Avondale’s stringent defence, which conceded a miserly 25 goals in 26 games on their way to a first place finish and promotion.
But on a personal front, the young defender ended the season with a debilitating hip injury, which saw him miss the end of the 2014 season, and the large majority of Avondale’s inaugural pre-season in the NPL proper.
“I had surgery in the off-season, a hip arthroscopy which set me back a bit. I had surgery and then a week later I was at the start of pre-season in November. So I’ve been at the club [doing rehab] since then. There was about four months of rehab, just because of the nature of the injury. It was a torn labrum amongst some other things, so after [I recovered] I started full training with the team for the last two months,” Campelj said.
“There was also a bit of a development issue in terms of my bone structure. There was impingement [of the hip] that happened over time and actually a lot of soccer players have it. It’s really common, but there was also an incident [that caused the torn labrum]. It was just an inadvertent tackle and I started to feel it about a month into the NPL1 season.
“I continued to play on it, particularly because we had no defenders [due to other long-term injuries]. Because of my impingement, there was two factors leading to a lot of pain. I was playing through it and ended up playing 20 games in a row. I don’t think it dictated my form but it did affect me in terms of getting some hamstring issues as well but I played through that as well.”
While looking back now, the Avondale defender admits he was happy with the pace in which he took his recovery, especially given how he spent a season playing through injury, but opened up about his frustrations at the time when faced with a team around him enjoying their football.
“In hindsight [the slower paced recovery] was probably a good thing, but at the time it definitely was very frustrating being injured,” he said reflecting on his time in rehab.
“It wasn’t actually invasive surgery, so I could walk straight away and the rehab process was just a return to running program. I was actually jogging and running six weeks after, the six weeks off was just swimming. It’s frustrating because I was watching [the team] all pre-season and I was returning.
“But definitely looking back at it, it was better because of the nature of the injury. It’s sort of like a hamstring, you can’t rush it, it just takes time and there’s nothing you can do about it. Now it’s pain free, which is great, but my recovery took longer – most people say three months.”
Having now been in full training for six weeks, Campelj is fit and raring to go, with his first crack at top-flight football in Victoria on offer. He’ll have to settle for the slow burn of returning through the 20’s after essentially going through a pre-season on his own.
“It’ll definitely be a milestone. It’s still probably a couple of weeks but because of the journey I’ve had at Avondale, I’ll look forward to it, but it’s just one step at a time through the 20’s for now.”
He makes his way onto the competitive roster with Anthony Saric officially departing the club to join Dandenong Thunder. Although it’s cliche, young Campelj is almost like a new signing for the club, with Anthony Barbieri also interested in doing some business before the window shuts.
Catch Dean Campelj in action for Avondale FC as they host Green Gully on Saturday. Kick-off at Avondale Heights Reserve for the U20’s is scheduled for 1:00pm with the seniors starting at 3.