Giannis Antetokounmpo made his long-awaited return to the court for the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday after missing over a month with a calf strain, and his long road tor recovery has revealed something to the Greek star about where he is at this point in his career and how he needs to approach his health going forward.

When Antetokounmpo first suffered the injury, he was the first one to speak on what he expected his recovery to look like, saying that he expected a 4-6 week timeline, and it took him almost the entire six weeks to get back to the court. 

For Antetokounmpo, injuries have been nothing new for the star, but his recovery time is what's fluctuated the most. His past experiences with injuries have come with faster turnarounds, but this calf injury and the recovery that came with it is a new development for Antetokounmpo. 

Antetokounmpo isn't up there in years by any means, but he isn't as young as young as he used to be either.

With how dependent on physicality that Antetokounmpo's game is, injuries are going to be a natural consequence, but it's almost a major liability in the sense that any loss of his explosiveness going forward that can come at great cost to his game.

With all of that in mind, how he approaches his recovery going forward has been on Antetokounmpo's mind now more than ever. 

"I'm 31 years old, just gotta be able to be more smarter moving forward because things that I was able to do in the past, maybe I'm not able to do now," Antetokounmpo said (via Eric Nehm). And I've just gotta be more methodical with my rehab, the way I take care of my body, the way I play."

When Antetokounmpo first learned about his calf injury, how he was going to approach his recovery was already on his mind, saying he was going to focus on sleep and eating well. It seems now that's his perspective on not only his recovery, but how he's going to approach his day-to-day in his career. 

Antetokounmpo's return to the court wasn't ideal. While he scored 19 points in a restricted 25 minutes on the court, the Bucks as a whole fell 108-81 to the Boston Celtics in yet another major loss. 

Bringing Antetokounmpo back in any capacity will always be goof for the Bucks as a whole, but this season has continued to slip even further out of reach. 

The priority now for Antetokounmpo may not necessarily be winning games, but doing everything that he can to at least stay on the court.