The Fremantle captain has been out since round 3 with a left plantaris tendon injury, but senior coach Ross Lyon flagged a likely comeback for him against St Kilda at Patersons Stadium this Sunday.
Pavlich said a huge training workload over the past three weeks had him primed to play.
“The last hurdles are the two main training sessions with the group, which I have been doing over the past two weeks,” he said.
“I need to get through the sessions and pull up well from that and impress upon Ross and the coaching staff that I’m ready to go.
“I’m really excited about playing a game of footy this weekend.”
Pavlich admitted he wouldn’t be at optimum match-fitness levels, by virtue of the limited amount of games he’d played this season.
The skipper also had a compromised pre-season campaign because of surgery.
“There might be a small amount I’m off, by virtue of the fact that I’ve only played three or four games this year,” he said.
“In reality that’s the bit I’ll lacking in, but clearly I’ve been able to do a huge amount of work and kilometres over the past three or four weeks.
“I have a huge amount of confidence in our strength and conditioning people, in particular (sports science manager) Jason Weber, who I’ve worked really closely with.
“We put full faith in him to ensure that when I go out there, my body is ready to withstand an AFL game.”
A veteran of 276 AFL games, Pavlich’s current stint on the sidelines has been the longest of his decorated career.
He said he had missed the competitive nature of the game.
“That’s something that’s intrinsic in me and something I love about our game,” Pavlich said.
In particular, he said it was the last few minutes before a game that were most special.
“That steely look you give each other and the determination you have just prior to running out, it’s a hard feeling to describe but it’s one that gets me going and gets the competitive juices flowing,” he said.
Pavlich and wife Lauren welcomed baby girl, Harper Rose, into the world in March.
While being on the sidelines has been frustrating, the Freo captain has been able to find some positives from his situation.
“Not travelling as much has given me a bit more time with Harper Rose and Lauren, which has been terrific,” he said.
“You can never discount how important the early bonding and development part of that relationship with your children can be.
“But I’m still training very hard and spending plenty of time around the football club.
“It’s been a good balance, I’ve been able to hopefully get through another university unit as well.”
Pavlich said he had been left very impressed with the number of youngsters who had stood up in the absence of key players this season, including first-year talls Jack Hannath and Matt Taberner.
“They’ve been a group of guys who are really hungry to succeed and hungry for hard work,” he said.
“I’ve been very impressed with the attitudes and efforts from the guys in the time that I’ve been out and it’s been pleasing to work a bit more closely with them.
“There’s a really bright future for some of those guys.”
Pavlich also credited stand-in captain Luke McPharlin for the “first-class” leadership he had displayed this season.
But he joked about the All Australian defender’s tough run with coin tosses in the past year, which included another incident on the weekend in Geelong
“It’s not his strength, tossing the coin,” Pavlich said.
“If his tossing of the coin is anything to go by, I think I’m pretty safe.”
