Why McCullough is confident of round one return
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Broncos winger Jamayne Isaako on his NRL chance
Andrew McCullough is ahead of schedule with his ACL recovery and insists he is winning the race to be fit for Brisbane Broncos' round one clash with the Dragons on March 8.
The Brisbane hooker missed the last five rounds and the 2017 finals series after suffering the first serious injury of his 214-game Telstra Premiership career in the round 21 clash with the Eels.
On Monday, the 27-year-old rake looked slick in a ball-work session at Broncos training, before icing his knee and having a chat to NRL.com.
When asked to provide his chances of making an opening round return, McCullough replied: "I’m a 90-10".
"It is coming along well and I’m pretty confident. I’ve had a solid five months or more since my operation on August 4 and I’m getting out and doing some ball work, so I’m pretty happy.
"I’m ahead of schedule and I think round one is pretty logical for me. That is a pretty good result."
Good news for McCullough, and vital for the Broncos.
He doesn’t get the adulation some of his colleagues, but McCullough is a key component of the Broncos side. He makes 50 tackles per game, provides silver service from dummy half and is an uncompromising competitor.
That is why he was able to win the 2017 Broncos player of the year gong, the Paul Morgan Medal, by a healthy margin despite just playing 18 games.
McCullough said his knee was structurally in good shape ahead of the new season due to the unusual way he injured his ACL.
"The way I did it is a lot different because mine was sheer contact, and I don’t know too many other guys who have physically been hit with their ACLs," he said.
"It is like a break of my ligament, whereas you see a lot of ACLs [where] there is no contact and it looks like a sniper got them out of nowhere and you wonder what happened.
"My knee was functionally pretty good and it was just an unlucky circumstance where I got hit, so that’s the positive out of it.
"I’ve just got to make sure my medial is nice and straight, which it has been the last three or four weeks.
"I’m just trying to get my quad muscle and calf [right] now."
Until last season McCullough had hardly missed a match since his first full season of NRL in 2009, after making his debut the previous year.
Signed until the end of 2021, the Broncos rake is on track to reach the 300 NRL plateau for the club.
He just hates to miss games, which explains why he said he felt ''a bit helpless'' during the early stages of his recovery as the Broncos went deep into finals footy.
"You want to repay the Broncos for signing you by playing games for them," he said.
" I enjoy playing football. Missing it is a bit of a downer.
"I prefer to be winning games, but I’d rather be out there losing games with teammates I’ve trained with the whole time rather than being a bit of luggage.
"So I’ve had some ups and downs emotionally.
"I learned a bit about myself and the people around me probably [learned] how self-centred you can be when you get injured."
It is that focus that has made McCullough such a crucial cog in the Broncos machine.
His recent marriage to partner Carlie at Byron Bay enabled him to direct his focus elsewhere and came at just the right time.
"It has kept my mind and energy off my leg, broke up my pre-season a bit and gave me something else to look forward to," McCullough said.
"It helped me put a perspective on things, and then be able to come back and enjoy my football again."
