Storm fullback Ryan Papenhuyzen says suggestions he could be back in 3-4 weeks are “ambitious”, but he’s holding out hope he could return before the NRL finals.
Papenhuyzen, who hasn’t played in 2023 after suffering a fractured kneecap in round 18 last season, was keen to downplay expectation after a report of a favourable medical review put a return within the next month in the frame.
He revealed a recent setback required more testing and delayed a full return to running but remained confident he would be back this season, starting with a return in reserve grade.
“I’ll knock the three to four week reports on its head. I think that’s a bit ambitious,” he said on Thursday.
“I’m getting back into running so however long that’s going to take for me to get some ks in the legs and change of direction. There’s all that stuff I still need to do.
“So once that I get a good block of training in and then probably have to come back through reserve grade.
“I’m still a while off playing for the Storm, but it’s a long season. I think we’re only halfway through now, so hopefully you can come into the back end, be fresh for the finals.”
Papenhuyzen revealed he “got close” to running at 100 per cent nearly a month ago but pulled up sore and some more testing led to a rethink on his comeback.
“I got to a point where I was starting to do some change in direction and pulled up a little bit sore in my quad tendon, so we had to strip it right back and do some more testing,” he told SEN.
“Then from that testing we figured out there‘s still a pretty big deficiency … so that was that was a bit frustrating, sort of set me back a little bit.
“But at the same time, I sort of know where I’m at now and I’m stronger, so it just gives me a bit more confidence to progress with it and fingers crossed it’s all smooth sailing for me.”
Papenhuyzen said he was taking hope from the comeback of AFL star Charlie Curnow, who suffered the same injury before coming back to win last year’s Coleman Medal as the league’s leading goalkicker.
He said Curnow had “reached out” and that had enhanced his hope of a return to normal.
“He’s done the exact same thing and he’s killing it,” he said.
“You get confidence from different people, but Charlie’s been awesome. He’s reached out and I’m forever appreciative of that.”