The groin injury that ruled Daniel Menzel out of last year's preliminary final was "quite serious" and he's still working to full fitness, according to the Geelong forward.
Menzel had a delayed start to the pre-season and spent considerable time doing rehabilitation on the injury.
The 25-year-old battled groin soreness in the second half of last season and missed three of the Cats' final five matches.
The injury-plagued Cat rates his health a "seven or eight" out of 10.
"I'm getting there," he told SEN radio. "It (groin injury) wasn't a small, niggly injury, it actually hung around a fair while.
"But I'm really happy with where it's at and obviously played a half last week against the Crows (in a pre-season match).
"It was probably a little bit ahead of schedule so, for us, we're really happy with how it's gone and hopefully I'll pretty much play a full game this week and then give myself the best chance to go round one."
Menzel missed almost four years of senior football as he underwent four knee reconstructions.
After first injuring his knee in late 2011, he made his long-awaited return in Round 22, 2015 and enjoyed the best year of his career last year with 33 goals from 18 games.
His extensive injury history has restricted him to just 41 games in seven seasons.
Geelong's final practice match of the pre-season is against Essendon on Sunday in Bendigo.