Greater Western Sydney defender Sam Taylor has revealed he couldn’t walk properly for almost three months and lost 11kg after battling a rare infection which ended his 2020 season.

The Swan Districts-product spent two weeks in hospital and a month on a drip after he was diagnosed with septic arthritis, a painful joint infection, which attacked his hip.

Taylor began feeling the pain the day after the Giants’ round four victory over Collingwood and after visiting the club doctor, night sweats and plenty of pain, it soon became apparent something wasn’t right.

“It was quite scary,” Taylor told AFL.com.au.

“It happened so quickly. I went from playing an AFL game, winning, and the next day not being able to walk and move properly.

“It got worse and worse … I couldn’t move, I couldn’t walk, couldn’t get upstairs, go to the toilet, do anything.

“It was definitely the hardest patch of my life. The process took some time. It’s never happened in the AFL before, an illness like this.

“The physios and S&C (strength and conditioning) guys had no idea how to treat it.”

The WA defender is on the comeback trail and on track to play in the pre-season games.

Taylor has returned to 95kg and is completing full training sessions as he looks to add to his 34 AFL games as early as possible in 2021.

This is on the back of a rigorous pre-season, which saw Taylor stay in Sydney once the 2020 season ended to get his body back to where it was in 2019, when he was touted as one of the best up-and-coming defenders.

“I’ve grown from it, learnt things, become a better person, a better athlete,” he said.

“It’s amazing to run again. I got back to training in January and began on the track again, I’m running around on air, it’d been so long.

“Sometimes I wondered if I was ever going to get back.

“I had to go back to basics and not try to push myself to go forward.”