Daniel Wells says he has experienced a month of utter frustration with the cause of ongoing pain in his right foot stumping him and medical staff. X-rays had failed to identify the reason for the issue which has kept him on the sidelines since his last game against Collingwood in Round 5.

“Most players know this is a very tough industry and you want to make sure you can play under a bit of duress,” Wells told the Herald Sun’s Glenn McFarlane.

“For three weeks or so, we couldn’t work out what was wrong. The scans were all looking pretty good and I started to have some doubts about myself.

Wells was becoming increasingly worried about his capacity to work through the severe pain during the time it was undiagnosed.

“You have to be able to handle pain, especially when you play for a club where the likes of Glenn Archer, Anthony Stevens and Wayne Carey have come from.”

It wasn’t until Wells was scanned while placing pressure through his foot that a Lisfranc injury was diagnosed.

Finally knowing there was a serious issue gave the dual best and fairest some comfort.

“It was good to get some sort of result, even if it means I won’t be playing football for a while,” he said.

“It’s a relief as I thought maybe I was getting a bit soft.”

The club expects Wells to miss another month of football and will have the midfielder back running in the next fortnight.

“I’ve got a bit more purpose now with what we need to do. It’s good to have a bit more certainty about it.

“In saying that, I am still a little bit off playing again. It’s a few more weeks until we test it out again.

“Rest is the main thing right now and to give it a good chance to recover. Initially, we didn’t do that because we didn’t think it was a serious injury.

“I won’t rush it. In two or three weeks’ time, we will get back out there (at training). It may be quicker, it may be longer.

“I will just work with the physios and the doctors and keep getting the scans, but at least there is some light at the end of the tunnel.”

As for the cause of the injury - team-mate Drew Petrie is to blame after accidentally stomping on Wells’ foot in training.

“I don’t want to put the big fellow (Petrie) in, but it was Drewie,” he said.

“He didn’t even know that he had stood on my foot until after training. It probably wasn’t all his fault, as the next movement when I took off and tried to do a sharp turn was when it really hurt.”

Making matters worse for Wells is the fact he’ll miss Indigenous Round and won’t get to wear the club’s special jumper designed by up and coming artist Sarrita King.

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