Norton can't wait to return to 'normal' life

Mitch Norton feared the worst when he injured his knee in the opening game of NBL26 but now after being Mr Grumpy at home for a couple of months, the Brisbane Bullets captain is jumping out of his skin to return on Saturday.

Norton suffered a knee hyperextension just 12 minutes into the first game of the season that the Bullets went on to win against the New Zealand Breakers at Spark Arena.

He's worked diligently to now be ready to return this Saturday against the Tasmania JackJumpers at MyState Bank Arena having been remarkably durable throughout his 372-game NBL career.

Being sidelined has been a rare thing since his debut all the way back in 2011 at his hometown Townsville Crocodiles so he can't hide his excitement to now be confirmed to return.

"It's very exciting and obviously I had a long build up before my last game with all the pre-season and everything so to be back out there with the guys, I can't wait," Norton said.

"It's been a long couple of weeks and very stressful, but at the same time I'm super glad with the support network around me because when I'm not playing basketball, and things aren’t going to plan on-court, I can be a difficult person to be around so a big thank you to Sascha and my son."

Dealing with being sidelined

Norton isn’t the easiest person to live with when not able to get out there to play, but what he also found when sidelined was that he was actually busier.

Once the rest of his teammates finished their work at the club for the day, that's when his real recovery and rehab work started so he's now keen to get back to more of a normal life as a player, and his partner Sascha and son George will be thankful.

"The grumpy factor has definitely been there but it's also everyone thinks it must be good to be at home with the family and have more time, but I've actually felt busier not being out and playing," Norton said.

"Because you're there for all the on-court stuff, but afterwards that's when you have to do your individual work and then you go to Total Fusion to do some recovery or rehab stuff.

"I'm glad to be back playing for a number of reasons and one of them is that I can actually get my work done on the court again, and then come home to see the family."

Initial thoughts with injury

It was only natural for Norton to fear the worst when he first went down with the knee injury against the Breakers in that first game of the season.

While there were encouraging signs that it wasn’t a ruptured ACL, he still was worried and it wasn’t until he returned to Brisbane from Auckland, and received the scan that showed the knee hyperextension that he knew it wasn’t a worst case scenario.

"It was pretty scary in the moment and I've never really suffered anything like that to my knee," Norton said.

"Obviously your mind races to the worst case scenario of the fact you might be out for 12 months, but the pain was constant.

"So that gave me some hope because apparently with an ACL the pain is really severe immediately and then it sort of goes away, but I wasn’t exactly sure.

"Then the wait to fly back home until I got a scan means it's playing on your mind a lot although the initial tests when they tug your knee seemed to be OK, and the ACL seemed to be intact.

"You're still never quite sure until you get that scan and then the results came through, and I'm very pleased with how we've approached it.

"The medical staff have done a great job coming up with creative ideas to hopefully keep me fit as much as I can. I'm sure that first game will be when it really hits me."

Seeing SMac go down as well

One thing that could have given Norton a degree of comfort that the Bullets were in good hands at least on the defensive and physical front was that they would have Sam McDaniel out there to lead from the front.

Then when he went down in the opening minutes of the second game of the season in Cairns, it was like Norton's worst nightmare in terms of the start to a season but he's looking forward to McDaniel now joining him in a return from that ankle injury in coming weeks.

"I won't be allowed to tell you exactly what came out of my mouth at that time, but it was quite devastating to be honest," Norton said.

"Having seen him go through the year prior and put all the hard work in, and then play NBL1 and have a really strong start to that season, and then in pre-season he was elite as well.

"It obviously gives me a lot of confidence when he's out there on the floor and to not have him there is challenging.

"That's why I loved that trip to Japan we had in pre-season where we could play on the court at the same time, it was a hell of a lot of fun and hopefully we can replicate that feeling again here with the Bullets."

Summing up season so far

Norton with admit that he's not a good watcher of his team when he's unable to get out on the court to help them, but he has done his best to watch on with a calm head over the past 10 matches that he's missed.

It's been a bit of an up and down ride with terrific wins in Perth and New Zealand, and big win at home to Cairns, but there's also been some rough nights including last Saturday night in the 37-point home defeat to the Sydney Kings.

Norton has liked the signs the Bullets have shown especially with the way Casey Prather and Tyrell Harrison have held down the fort, and Taine Murray, Tristan Devers and Alex Ducas have stepped up as the bodies now begin to return.

"There have been some rollercoaster days and I think the more bodies we have on deck is obviously going to make us a bit more consistent in certain areas," Norton said.

"I think overall we've shown a lot of fight and a lot of young guys have benefited greatly from the opportunities they have been given.

"It's only going to hold them in good stead moving towards the back end of the year and someone like Taine, as a first year player he might not have expected to play this many minutes.

"But he's now starting and really holding his own so I'm super proud of how guys like him and TD have taken it in their stride to impact the game in a great way."

Facing a former teammate

Saturday will also provide a first opportunity for Norton to come up against his Bullets teammate of the past two seasons, Josh Bannan, who made the move to the JackJumpers for NBL26.

He's in career-best form too averaging 14.0 points and 9.2 rebounds with Tasmania and while Norton is happy for him, that goes out the window once they are rivals come Saturday at MyState Bank Arena.

"It's going to be fun going up against him and obviously we had a really good relationship when he was here, and still do," Norton said.

"I also got to go away with him to Japan as well before the season which was good fun and he's a great teammate, but obviously now we're both fierce competitors and when we cross those four lines it's going to be on come Saturday.

"You always like to see someone like him do well, but just not against you and the longer you play the game, you build these sort of friendships and any time you have a teammate like him, you build a special bond and I'm sure we'll catch up after hopefully we get a win against his new team."

Keeping an eye on another one

Speaking of former teammates, Norton will be a keen observer on Sunday to watch on as his former Wildcats championship teammate Bryce Cotton plays with the Adelaide 36ers against Perth for the first time.

"I definitely will be tuning in for that one and I can't wait, I think it's going to be a good clash," Norton said.

"The thing about Bryce is that he obviously looks forward to these big challenges and playing in big environments, but he never lets that come in the way of team success. I'm pumped to see that and can't wait to watch that on Sunday, and I'll send a message sometime this week for sure."