It was the freak fishing injury that threatened to derail his NRL pre-season, but the only pain for Peter Wallace was the embarrassment of telling the story.
The Penrith veteran trained for the first time on Tuesday since being forced to undergo emergency surgery on his left hand while on holiday in Queensland last month.
"I just cut my fingers while I was away, on the rocks. I got a tendon repaired. It's obviously embarrassing. Get through the season unscathed then go away and hurt yourself," Wallace said.
The cuts were so bad that it was initially feared the reborn hooker could've missed the vast majority of the pre-season, however he was relieved to only miss a couple of weeks.
Wallace reunited with the main squad in a 90-minute session in the heat on Tuesday.
"It was just an accident, these things happen. It was just unfortunate, really," he said.
"There was a fear it was going to put a bit more dent in the pre-season than it has, but the fingers are all healing really well. That was my first session today and it was all good."
The former club captain is expected to start the 2017 season at hooker, despite the last-minute recruitment of former St George Illawarra rake Mitch Rein.
Wallace said signing the NSW Country Origin representative was a huge boost for the club.
"Mitch is a great pick-up for us, quality player," Wallace said.
"A lot of depth to the squad as well - that was one area we were a little bit light on and it's covered that really well. I'm looking forward to working with him."
For the 31-year-old Wallace, the dramatic start to the summer is in stark contrast to 12 months ago, when his future at the club was in question following the coaching appointment of Anthony Griffin.
The pair had a falling out when working together in Brisbane, however Griffin's decision to shift Wallace to dummy-half proved to be one of the key element's of Penrith's push deep into the finals last season.
Wallace believes he can find another gear with an entire pre-season training at hooker.
"I feel I've got a lot of improvement left. I was still probably learning the role towards the back end of last year," he said.
"This time last year I wasn't running either, so it's been really good to be back into the group and doing the full training."
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