Sixteen months worth of waiting came to an end on Sunday for Carlton defender Cameron Giles.

Making his return to football via the Northern Blues Development League side, Giles had a successful first game back after a navicular injury suffered last year.

It has been a long way back for the versatile defender, whose last game prior to Sunday dated back to May 2014.

Having endured a horror past 12 months which involved two bouts of surgery on his right navicular, Giles was due for a bit of good fortune. His return to footy meant the smile couldn’t be wiped from his face post-match.

“It was really good, just to get out there and have a run around again and just enjoy playing footy,” Giles said.

“I only played a half but it was good to get through and to be back out there.”

On forecasted limited game time, Giles went onto collect 12 disposals - a team-high at half time - and six marks in two quarters of footy before being taken from the ground.

Despite both Development and VFL sides not getting the desired result at Ikon Park on Sunday, Giles emerging unscathed from his much-welcomed return to footy was one of the season’s bright points.

After dealing with the longest of waits before returning, Giles said he was trying to keep it all relatively low key in the week prior.

“I didn’t really think about it much during the week building up to the game, but when I ran out I kind of thought to myself ‘OK, we’re ready to go here’,” he said.

“I didn’t know many of the boys and I knew I only had a half to have a run around so it was just good to get through unscathed.”

And what about the foot?

“It’s feeling really good. I’ve done everything I can in terms of rehab, and Mark Homewood and the physios have been really spot on and held me back a little bit. I’ve got complete faith in my foot now.”

With the Development side well and truly outdone by a superior Sandringham, Giles and his defensive counterparts saw the footy coming their way with regularity. For the most part assigned a role on St Kilda-listed forward Spencer White, Giles performed his role and didn’t miss a beat, if not understandably lacking in match fitness.

On the next fortnight, Giles remarked he hopes to get back to VFL footy at some stage before the season is out and set a foundation heading into pre-season.

“I was blowing up out there, well and truly. The match fitness isn’t there yet but hopefully in the next two games we can build on that and then build into pre-season,” Giles said.

“I’ll play up in the VFL if everything goes to plan in the next two weeks, but it’s just good to be back.”

Giles could see the lighter side from his lengthy recovery time, suggesting his time on the sidelines meant he could recuperate his whole body.

“The body’s feeling really good in general - 17 months was probably a good bit of time to rest up the rest of my body.”

Giles reserved a special acknowledgment for the fans sending him well wishes before taking to Twitter, saying his return “made it all worth it”.

“It’s been a real big build-up for me, having not played any footy for 16 months - the support has been awesome.”

Regularly spotted at Northern Blues games over the past 12 months with moon boot and crutches in tow, Giles paid credit to the support of his teammates, saving a final mention for Ciaran Byrne and Patrick Cripps.

“The boys have been really good: those two are my housemates obviously and they’re always throwing a bit of banter around, but they’ve been good to vent to.”

It was 16 months between games for Cam, so he’ll be heartened by the fact that his next outing will be in just five days time. The Northern Blues face the Box Hill Hawks from Preston City Oval on Saturday.