Knee injury survivor Trent Hentschel may be one strong SANFL performance away from a rousing return to the AFL for Adelaide nearly two years after his knee buckled horribly in 2006.

Having played well in defence in his first game back with SANFL side Woodville West Torrens last week, Hentschel will be given some time to get used to all the various collisions and stresses placed on his reconstructed knee.

But Crows coach Neil Craig said that 25-year-old Hentschel's movement was very close to what he had shown in 2006.

That year he was well on the way to becoming a star of the competition, kicking eight goals in one game against Essendon, to justify the faith shown by Adelaide through previous seasons when he had been derisively labelled "Trent Potential".

However that was all put on hold when he was crunched under a tackle by Port Adelaide's Matt Thomas on the eve of the finals, suffering leg injuries consistent with those suffered in a car crash.

"What I do know is his movement from what I've seen on the training track is nearly as good as what it was before he got injured," Craig said.

"He's worked extremely hard, had to show unbelievable resilience and courage to keep going, which so many times he could've said 'no'.

"Now he's playing league footy he's at a stage now where his selection will be dictated on performance, which is great for Trent - it would be a great story for footy if Trent was able to play AFL footy again."

Craig's predictions were less rosy for fellow knee victim Rhett Biglands, who is recovering this year after requiring a second successive knee reconstruction at the outset of the season.

At the age of 30, Biglands would have been fighting a difficult battle even if the likes of Kurt Tippett and Jon Griffin had failed to develop briskly this year.

As it is, they are currently making light of the lack of established ruckmen many said would be Adelaide's downfall.

"That one's up in the air, it's a second knee reconstruction, he's now back and working just as hard as he did for the first one," Craig said.

"It would be foolhardy both for Rhett and our club to make any decisions right now, I think he'd agree with that, just let that pan out.

"The most important thing for Rhett is to get his knee back into shape so it doesn't affect his lifestyle."

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