Josh Hodgson says his recovery from knee surgery is ahead of schedule and he could be back playing NRL for Canberra by the start of June.
The star hooker ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in November while playing for England in the Rugby League World Cup.
Despite recovery from traditional ACL surgeries typically taking up to 12 months, Hodgson was back up and running at training on February 2 in a huge boost for the Raiders.
Hodgson said there was no firm date for his return, but an early June comeback could have him back playing in a round-14 Friday night home game against Penrith.
"It could be the end of July, or it could be the start of June ... God knows when it will be," Hodgson told AAP.
"We haven't really set a date on it because it's such a rough time scale between the six-to-nine month period.
"But to get up and running earlier than I thought is a big boost mentally and physically to get the body ticking over.
"Playing will be like we do with the rehab at the moment. If I'm right to run, we go out and run but, if we pull up stiff, then we don't risk it.
Hodgson said the mental side of dealing with the injury had been difficult, but he had been staying involved in the team as best he could.
"There's a lot of people worse off than me so it's not worth kicking stones. I've got great physios and facilities and get looked after impeccably," Hodgson said.
"I've been trying to do all my training in the morning so I can watch the boys doing their drills later so, when I do come to play, I'm not trying to catch up in a couple of weeks."
Raiders coach Ricky Stuart tried Siliva Havili and Craig Garvey in Hodgson's hooking position in Saturday night's trial game against Canterbury, along with Aidan Sezer for a short spell.
Share
