Moses Suli is set to play his first game at Manly with the NRL club's reserve grade side as soon as next week.
Suli, who was released by both the Wests Tigers and Canterbury over the off-season for a lack of professionalism, has spent recent weeks training at Manly overcoming minor injuries and shedding weight picked up in the off-season.
The 19-year-old is expected to be officially registered as one of the final two players the NRL has allowed room for to complete Manly's 30-man roster for this year as part of the ongoing salary-cap drama.
"He's going well, we're expecting Moses to be available to play next week. We'll put him in to play for (feeder club) Blacktown next week," Manly coach Trent Barrett said.
"He's a lovely kid and I'm really happy for him that he's put himself in this position to get back on the field.
"He looks good, he's certainly a talented player - we all know that. We've just got to keep working with him."
Suli found his way to Manly due to his close links with a number of young players at the club, including Addin Fonua-Blake.
A $1.3 million signing over three seasons at the Tigers before he even played an NRL game at the start of 2017, Suli's problems largely related to training attendance and punctuality at both his former clubs.
But Barrett said he'd had no such issues at Manly.
"He's been really good. He hasn't missed a beat, he's done everything we've asked of him," Barrett said.
"He came over and saw us. I think you can always see when there is good in a person and I certainly saw a lot of good in Moses."
Suli's return comes at a key time for Manly, who are facing something of a backline shortage.
Winger Jorge Taufua played through a broken collarbone during the second half of last week's loss to South Sydney, and is out for up to eight weeks.
The Sea Eagles are hoping to have Dylan Walker back from leg and shoulder injuries in round six against the Tigers, with Barrett not keen to rush one of his star players back and risk further problems.
"We think he (Walker) will be a fortnight. He looks really good. I'm not going to rush him, he's too important to us but he's doing very well," Barrett said.
"And if we get Moses to keep improving hopefully he's available for us towards the back-end of the year. So we're going to get some depth there, we are a bit light on at the moment."
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