Phillips will make his return to the field in GWS' clash with West Coast in Perth on Sunday.
It will be the 22-year-old's first game since way back on August 25, 2012.
He first sustained a hamstring problem during preparations for the 2013 season, sparking a long, frustrating run where the exact problem couldn't be diagnosed and eventually resulted in surgery.
It was a taxing period for the young Tasmanian, but the club did all it could to help him survive it, including putting him in contact with GWS psychologist, Dr Rosie Stanimirovic.
"It's pretty lonely in rehab," Phillips told AFL.com.au.
"There's a lot of time spent by yourself and you're always away from the main group.
"But the boys here do really well trying to get around you, and the physios and Rosie the psychologist, you really get a push to talk to them.
"The club encourages long-term rehabbers to talk to Rosie.
"I was a little bit sceptical to start with, but after a couple of weeks of chatting to her, I found it really helped me progress and get through it."
The hardest part for Phillips was the inability to determine exactly what was causing the problem.
The 202cm, 98kg ruck project had surpassed expectations back in 2012, benefiting from Dean Brogan's jumping in and out of the fledgling side to make nine appearances in his first year on an AFL list.
But the joy of that experience, including playing in GWS' first ever on debut against Gold Coast, was soon swept away by doctors’ visits and uncertainty.
"There was a bit of trouble figuring out what actually went wrong with the hamstring," Phillips said.
"Surgery is the last resort, so we tried to just rehab it and get it right.
"But it didn't quite want to work like that and there was a bit of nerve and a bit of tendon damage in there that didn't come up the first time.
"So we had to source some specialists and go and see a lot of people to try to figure out what was wrong.
"It just kept lingering on and on.
"Once we figured it out, I ended up having an operation on it, and knew how to rehab it and got on top of it from there."
He was still hindered coming into the 2014 pre-season, but returned to full fitness just as the home and away season began and finally got back on the field in the seconds.
So was he rusty to start off with?
"Oh yeah," he said. "Only three weeks of pre-season, you're always going to come in underdone.
"And that match fitness, you know you're missing it straight away. You start cramping pretty early.
"But to finally start running out games in the twos was promising.
"Obviously with (Shane) Mumford out, that's the window of opportunity that I had to wait for.
"With him unfortunately going down, that's my opportunity."
His first assignment is a showdown with the AFL's most lethal ruck duo, Dean Cox and Nic Naitanui.
But considering what he's been through, taking on the dual All Australians holds few fears for the likeable redhead.
"It's not a bad game to come back for," he said, with a grin.
"It's always going to be a pretty challenging task, but I think I'm up to it."
