Canberra veteran Sia Soliola has no trepidations returning from his badly fractured face, insisting the hits he's copped at training have him ready for the NRL.
Soliola will play his first game in almost three months against Cronulla on Saturday, as one of nine new faces in the Raiders side for their final-round clash.
The 34-year-old has been fit to return for the past fortnight, but has spent that time training alongside several of the reserves who will get their chance this weekend.
"If I needed the best training to test it all out it was with this bunch," Soliola said.
"There were a lot of unpredictable scenarios that were put in place in terms of the contact we needed.
"What better way to test it out than with some young raw kids that are full of energy and not as controlled as what I am used to training with first grade."
There had initially been fears the off-contract Soliola's season was over when he had a head clash with St George Illawarra prop Blake Lawrie.
He was taken to hospital and went under the knife, slowly making plans to keep his NRL career afloat with a new deal now almost done.
"After my first discussion with the doctor Robert Witherspoon, he was quite confident he could get me back in the season," Soliola said.
"He just gave me a good outline of what I needed to achieve on a fortnightly basis.
"We were just keeping on track there, it gave me a good challenge to try and get back."
Soliola's 12-week lay off is far from the longest-awaited comeback in Canberra this week.
Adam Cook, Darby Medlyn and Jarrett Subloo will all make their NRL debuts.
Halfback Sam Williams will play his first game since last June, while five-eighth Matt Frawley will play his first game for Canberra after playing under-20s for the club in 2013 and 2014.
Since then he played 31 games for Canterbury in 2017 and 2018, before featuring for Huddersfield in England last year.
"It's a dream come true coming back to Canberra and making my club debut for the team I supported as a kid," Frawley said.
Australian Associated Press
