Ryan Papenhuyzen remains touch and go to play in Round 1, with Melbourne Storm GM of football Frank Ponissi revealing his star player is still “nowhere near ready” to return to full training.
Papenhuyzen, 24, had his 2022 season cut short in July after an ugly injury that saw his kneecap fractured in 10 places when trying to tackle Canberra’s Jack Wighton.
It was one of the worst NRL injuries seen in years, and five months later Papenhuyzen is still unable to complete pre-season with teammates.
But the fullback participated and won the pro-am at the Australian Open at Victoria golf course late last month and is continuing to take steps towards his return.
He said at the time: “I‘m not running yet but hopefully before Christmas and then that will give me a good timeline to be good for Round 1.”
But while Papenhuyzen hopes to be running in the coming days and weeks, he’s still well away from a return to full training.
“Ryan’s probably the player who’s still got a bit of work to do,” Ponissi told SEN’s Sportsday when asked about the Storm’s injury list.
“At this stage, he’s going along nicely, he’s still got a lot of work to do before we count him in for Round 1, but the plan is we will count him in for Round 1.
“It was a major injury, multiple fractures in his kneecap.”
Papenhuyzen’s injury limited him to just 12 appearances for the year given he also battled a hamstring tear earlier in the season. It comes after an interrupted year in 2021, and after two marred seasons, the Storm won’t rush their fleet-footed star back.
“For the first couple of months, he couldn’t do anything at all. He’s just building his leg up, obviously he’s nowhere near ready for full training at this stage, but ... continuing a pretty extensive rehab program (we hope that) come the end of January, or early February, that he is back in full training and then he can start some contact work,” Ponissi added.
“We start the new season in early March, so it is going to be touch and go and we certainly won’t rush him for Round 1, but if he’s right to play we’ll play him, otherwise we’ll hold him off till he’s ready.”
The Storm will open their season against Parramatta on Thursday, March 2.