The defender dislocated his shoulder in Freo’s final game of the 2014 season against Port Adelaide and underwent a latarjet procedure, the same surgery Nat Fyfe had previously on an injured shoulder.
Ibbotson said he couldn’t wait to resume full training on the track with the rest of the squad.
“I’ll be out of contact work for a little while, but I’ll be into some footy drills hopefully next week,” he said.
“I’ve been doing a bit of running, I’m a little bit underdone… there’s still some improvement to come.”
The 26-year-old was having arguably the best season of his career in 2013, but an Achilles injury in the latter stages of the season saw him sit out the rest of the club’s campaign, which included a Grand Final appearance.
He hurt his shoulder early in 2014 against Hawthorn and has also missed time in the past two years with calf and quad injuries.
Ibbotson admitted injuries had been frustrating, but he said he’d tried to maintain a positive outlook.
“You can’t control injury a lot of the time with footy, and that’s just part of the game,” he said.
“Everybody goes through it, I’ve just had a bit of a rough time in the past couple of years, but hopefully I’m out the other end.”
Ibbotson said it had been a little unnerving to hear senior coach Ross Lyon predict this pre-season would be one of the toughest, but he was more than willing to do whatever was required to give the team the best chance of success in 2015.
“It’s just what you wanted to hear when we’re about a week from starting,” he joked.
“It’s a good training block now.
“The season starts a bit later, so we’ve got a good four months post-Christmas and a few weeks beforehand, so we can get some good solid training in.”
