Jayden Brailey is clinging to a glimmer of hope of being back on deck in time to play some part in any resumption of the Knights' 2020 premiership campaign.
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But the cards will have to fall heavily in his favour and he is not about to take any risks following knee reconstructive surgery that's set to sideline him for up to nine months.
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The Knights hooker is currently looking at being fully fit and ready to go by December but a rapid recovery could see him back on the paddock by mid-November.
Whether that will be too late is in the lap of the gods and hinges on how quickly the NRL gets the competition back up and running.
"For me I guess, the further away the competition resumption is the better. September 1 would be nice or I'd even take an August start," he said.
"Any earlier than that and I'm done. If there is a late November grand final, I could maybe be back a couple of weeks prior to that if it all went well. That's something to aim for, something to get up every day to rehab and train for and keep my sanity as well. If not, it is what it is and I'll make sure I'm really strong and ready to go again in 2021."
It's early days in the recovery process and Brailey admits he is still struggling to deal with the the seriousness of the injury he suffered in the Knights win over the Wests Tigers last month.
"I was devastated - I was so upset to be honest," he said.
"I've been pretty lucky injury-wise and never had a serious injury. I probably never really thought something like this would happen because I've always had really good knees. There was absolutely nothing in it when I did it. The fact that I finished the game with it, I was sort of blindsided by what I'd actually done. Even in the dressing room after the game, I knew there was a little issue there but I was laughing and carrying on with the boys and thinking I'll have to get some treatment during the week and I'll be sweet. So it hurt even more because I wasn't expecting it and even after the scans, I thought I'd be right because I kept telling myself I finished the game so it can't be that bad.
"But I went in to see the physio after the scans and I could tell on his face straight away it wasn't good news because his face just dropped looking at the report. It was just so shattering."
The young hooker has already started rehab but it is baby steps at this stage.
"I'm doing as much as I can. It's about getting the swelling down and the physio has given me some stuff to do to get my quad activated because I'm not walking around," he said.
"That's about all I can do at the moment but I might be able to do a little bit of weight-bearing stuff starting this week. Over the next month, I'll be able to start doing more and more but it's a massive process."
Brailey says he is eyeing a nine month recovery.
"As much as I want to come back and play footy, I'm in no rush as well. I don't want to push it too hard and be sitting on the sidelines for another nine months."
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