Western Bulldogs captain Robert Murphy is torn between a comeback from his knee reconstruction and AFL retirement.

The 34-year-old is recovering well from the surgery after he snapped the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee only seconds from the final siren of the round-three loss to Hawthorn.

There is universal goodwill to Murphy around the AFL and the Bulldogs are very keen for the half-back to play again next year.

But last year’s All-Australian captain said on Saturday he is about to take a holiday and weigh up his options.

“I haven’t made a decision,” the 295-game veteran told the ABC.

“Depending on what day you get me, yesterday ‘definitely yes’, today ‘definitely no’, tomorrow who knows?

“Until (I’m) a bit emotionally stable, I just need a little bit of time to sort through a lot of things.”

Former teammate Brian Lake has been a devil’s advocate, saying he thinks Murphy should retire for the sake of the club.

“A lot of what Brian said made a lot of sense – it’s a big ask to come back,” Murphy said.

“The thing I disagree with was the inference that I could potentially be holding back Shane Biggs or Jason Johannisen – (that) didn’t make a lot of sense to me.”

Murphy, one of the more thoughtful personalities in the game, also admitted he had struggled to come to terms with the injury.

“Because of how tumultuous the past few years have been … to do my knee against perhaps the greatest team of them all in a game of the round, we’re three points up, 90 seconds to go, I don’t know if poetic is the right word for it,” he said.

“But something like that, something Irish – it might be Murphy’s Law actually.

“Whatever can go wrong will.

“I haven’t fully reconciled with it yet.”