Burns on track for early return

PENRITH star Travis Burns looks set to make an earlier than expected return from a knee injury.<br><br>Burns injured his knee in last week’s loss to his former side North Queensland and initial fears were that he may miss a big chunk of the season.<br><br>But on closer inspection, Burns suffered no major damage and should return soon for the Panthers.<br><br>“I’ve torn my meniscus cartilage. I got an arthroscope on Wednesday and it is not as bad as first thought so maybe only a couple of weeks out,” Burns told Bigpond Sports Weekend on Sunday.<br><br>Burns signed with the Panthers last November on a two-year deal.<br><br>The five-eighth has been a footballing nomad in his career, having played with Cronulla, Manly and North Queensland before joining the Panthers.<br><br>He put the Panthers’ patchy early form down to bad luck and said they would rebound strongly in the coming weeks.<br><br>“We were unlucky. We started the season well and our trial form was probably the best out of the NRL. We started well against Canberra and got a good win,” Burns said.<br><br>“We let a big lead slip against the Cowboys. That’s footy, we had a couple of quarters go against us. We’ve got to regroup and start again next week against Newcastle.