Warriors forward leader Tohu Harris says he is tracking well after a knee reconstruction and is back running with a view to resuming contact work some time in the new year.
Harris's ruptured ACL back in round 18 was a devastating blow for the already injury-ravaged Warriors squad, who were relying heavily on Harris and still a chance of pressing for a spot in the finals.
The Kiwi international though seemed positive about his recovery when addressing media this week.
"It's been on track so far which is pretty pleasing," Harris said.
"I've been able to get some running in on the field the last couple of weeks so that feels good to stretch the legs. I've still got to be patient and make sure I'm not pushing it too much so the knee goes backwards. Ticking along pretty well at the moment."
The timing of the injury was also particularly tough on Harris as it came the same week the side was relocated once again when the competition was forced to shift to Queensland.
"Obviously it's not ideal; the timing was pretty bad, it was our first week away from our families at the time but again it's all a part of footy and I'm in that position now," he said.
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"I've got to make sure I do my best to prepare my body and get as strong as possible again so I give myself less risk of it happening again."
Harris didn't want to get ahead of himself when eyeing a return to full training.
"I'm trying not to look too far ahead because I'll get too impatient with where we're at now and try and push things too much so I've got to be real mindful of that," he added.
"Trying to stay focus on the boxes I've got to tick now otherwise I will get ahead of myself and start to go backwards."
It was still too early to talk about specific dates of a return to the field, with the loose guideline of nine months for ACL injuries the only real indicator at this point.
"The nine month mark is generally a guideline of when people return from an ACL injury," he said.
"There's obviously cases where they can come back earlier and cases where it can take a bit longer but that nine month mark is sort of a really loose guideline of a return date and the nine month mark for me is about mid-May so somewhere around the (round) seven or eight mark of the season."
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It will be somewhat of a new-look side next year with Roger Tuivasa-Sheck having departed for rugby, prodigal son Shaun Johnson returning and former Titan Ash Taylor fighting for a spot in the halves.
"Ash has been training really well," Harris said.
"He's fit into the group really well so that's pretty exciting to see someone of his experience and skill level come in and work really hard.
"Shaun's obviously in quarantine still, he gets out pretty soon and every single person in the club is excited to see him come back and put the Warriors colours on again. I'm really looking forward to it and can't wait to see him around the younger guys and see the influence he can have on this team."