CHRISTIAN Salem says he’s confident he will bounce back strongly next year after an injury disrupted 2015 season.

Salem, who injured his right hamstring in round seven against Hawthorn at the MCG, and then later on hurt his left hamstring at training, was sidelined from rounds eight to 16. The classy Demon said it was a “frustrating” experience after a strong start to the season.

“It made my year pretty frustrating, being out for four weeks and then redoing it again before Queen’s Birthday, so I missed 10 or 11 games all up,” he told Dee TV.   

“I put in consistent work over the pre-season and my body was feeling good. The week before it happened, I pulled up pretty sore, but by the game [in round seven], I was ready to go and it just happened.

“From a workload point of view, I played on Brad Hill, Cyril Rioli and Paul Puopolo in that first quarter. That quarter is when I did it and they were coming on fresh each time [off the interchange] and just blew me up.”

Salem said that a post-match review of the game highlighted one possible trigger for his injury.

“Looking at the GPS numbers a couple of days after the game, [when I did it in] the first quarter, I did more long distance sprints in that first quarter than a normal game average for me, which is ridiculous.”

After reinjuring his hamstring again at training before the round 10 clash against Collingwood, Salem said he felt like he was back at “square one”, but also chose to view it as a valuable learning experience.

“It shows you how to deal with injuries – that’s a factor and that’s part of an AFL career so although it was frustrating, I learned a lot. I’ll build on that a lot next year and the years to come,” he said.

Salem, who returned to the team in round 21, says that he has no concerns about any ongoing complications from the injuries.

“As soon as I got back to AFL, I felt really confident in my body and was able to go at higher speeds. In my last three games, I went at pretty high speeds and felt good,” he said.

“It (the injury) wasn’t really an issue; it’s more of a mental thing but I’m fine and I’m feeling good.”