Aidan Hutchinson walked to the podium at the Detroit Lions’ practice facility with a smile on his face.

“It’s been a while,” Hutchinson said.

Hutchinson spoke to the media for the first time since he broke tibia and fibula in Week 5 of the 2024 season against the Dallas Cowboys, causing him to miss the rest of the year.

The star defensive end said doctors fully cleared him “awhile back” and he has been a full participant in the Lions’ offseason workouts.

“I got cleared a while back and now I’m just rolling with the boys now,” Hutchinson said Thursday, May 22 in Allen Park. “It feels like I’m back to being myself again.”

Hutchinson finished as the Lions’ sack leader in 2024 with 7½ sacks in five games before breaking his leg.

He posted updates throughout the winter during the back half of the 2024 season as he rehabilitated from the injury which had a four-to-six month recovery timeline.

He previously hinted at a potential return to the Super Bowl if the Lions had made it that far.

“As far as if I was going to play in the Super Bowl, I guess we’ll never know,” Hutchinson said about a theoretical return during the 2024 season.

The time away from the field and team was a strain for Hutchinson, who described his rehab as a long, but steady, linear climb back to being fully healthy.

There was no concern about a potential return, rather just impatience as he chomped at the bit to return to the field during what was turning into a breakout season.

He reiterated there were no more steps to clear in his rehabilitation and he was fully cleared to play.

“I was never that concerned because it was just a couple of bones,” Hutchinson said.

“Obviously I got a little bit impatient with it sometimes, but I always knew the end was near.”

However, Hutchinson still has one more personal goal in his rehabilitation process.

He is itching to return back to the field to play on “the big stage” and will have to wait until September for the Week 1 game against the Green Bay Packers.

“I don’t think anybody in the game of football will ever be as grateful (as) when I come back in that first game and I get to play football and I get to do it on the big stage again,” Hutchinson said. “I mean, that’s what it is all about — it’s the comeback.

“I mean, I’m back but it’s just being able to do what I love again on the biggest stage. That’s what sets my heart on fire.”

Last week, first-year defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard said Hutchinson was looking like himself again with his agility and explosiveness during the team’s offseason workouts.

“I went over there in individual and I said, ‘Look, you know how I know you’re back?’ He’s like, ‘How?’” Sheppard said last week. “I said, ‘Because you’re touching that ground when you run that hoop.’

And that’s this little thing he does like he’s some supernatural cat, which he is. But I’m like, ‘That’s how I know you’re back, Big Dog.'”

His Lions teammates have already noticed his presence at the team facility, even those on the offensive side who have not shared the practice field with him yet.

“We haven’t really gotten eyes on him,” right tackle Penei Sewell said.

“We are split right now but Hutch is Hutch so you can imagine what he’s doing.”

“It’s good to see him moving, man,” defensive tackle D.J. Reader said. “Good to see him moving around. He’s been good with the group.”

Hutchinson said his main motivation is returning to the level he showed during the first month of 2024, where he led the NFL in sacks and emerged as a potential Defensive Player of the Year candidate.

He compared his mindset during 2024 to a golfer in a rhythm with “good swing thoughts” on each shot.

“Pass rushing, I had these good pass rush thoughts, good things going on,” Hutchinson said. “I feel like that’s just going to carry over and I’m going to build on that.

“I think a lot of people believe that is kind of like my ceiling, but I believe that I’m going to continue to push for those greater heights.”

Jared Ramsey covers high school sports for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at jramsey@freepress.com; Follow Jared on X or Bluesky.