Fremantle midfielder Michael Barlow says he feels fortunate the sickening leg break which ended his debut AFL season did not occur a year earlier.

The 22-year-old mature-age draftee had been one of the feel-good stories of the AFL season, coming off the Dockers' rookie list to become one of the competition's form midfielders.

But Barlow said he took consolation from the fact that he had been given a chance to make an impression in the AFL and earn a contract for the next two seasons, before the leg break against Port Adelaide in round 14.

"Just to look back and think maybe I could have done this last year when I was trying to get drafted, I'd be sitting at home nearly inconsolable and in pain, just knowing that my draft dreams had basically gone," Barlow told the Nine Network's AFL Footy Show.

"There's so many positives out of it, doing it this time of year with a two-year contract to come after this, you can't help but kind of be happy and satisfied with what I've been able to achieve in the first 14 weeks of the season."

Barlow said he did not know when he would be able to return to football, but his recovery had begun well.

"The surgery has gone really well and the first two weeks now has been really good in my recovery," he said.

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