By Tim Campbell

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- He's back on the ice so quickly after being seriously hurt, his teammates have good-naturedly called him a freak.

Those Manitoba Moose players have no idea of the ordeal Jozef Balej has already faced.

Two years ago in a previous stint with the Moose, the 25-year-old from Slovakia was playing in Hamilton and ran into the butt end of his own stick against the boards, severely injuring his kidney. He missed half a season, though he returned triumphantly to the playoffs.

So three weeks ago at MTS Centre, when a marginal hit from Rockford defenceman Jerramie Domish caused severe damage to the anterior cruciate ligament in Balej's right knee, there was initial talk that his season might be lost and that surgery was imminent.

"I cannot take another season off. That would kill me," Balej said after finishing a 94-minute workout on Blue Cross Arena ice here on Monday.

"I think it's 90 per cent mental. If you want to get better, you will. If you want to be thinking about the bad things and the wrong things that can happen, it's going to go badly. I learned that and I try to use that to my advantage here."

A few days after his knee injury, despite grim reports, Balej returned to light workouts. He progressed to wearing a brace and skating with the team's Focus Fitness consultants and then to sessions with team doctors about the mechanics of his damaged ACL.

And now knowing that the damaged ligament cannot be made any worse, Balej joined his teammates on Sunday and appeared on the ice on Monday.

He and 14 teammates went through an hour of skating and shooting, and then head coach Scott Arniel took him aside, placing him along the boards and asking teammates to push, check and generally lean on the slick forward.

After more than a half-hour with that and other game simulations, Arniel emerged to confidently predict that Balej will be a gametime decision for the lineup in Wednesday's contest against the Rochester Americans here.

"He's got no discomfort, doing the change of direction, getting leaned on, the game situation stuff he's going to have to go through," the coach said. "We have to make sure there's no swelling or no soreness tomorrow morning. But it's all a good sign."

Balej had already proven to be a good fit with this version of the Moose. He had four goals and nine points in the nine games leading up to his injury.

It looks like there's a good chance they'll see him again, even if they're calling him names.

"A lot of guys were calling me a freak, like 'The freak is back,' " he laughed on Monday. "It's funny because they were talking about the season being over for me and now three weeks later, I'm playing."