Luke Gale has been advised not to think too much about his return to the Hull FC team before he leads the side out at Wigan Warriors.
The Hull skipper has served his five-match suspension and will return to the line-up for Thursday’s Super League trip.
FC head coach Brett Hodgson is happy to finally welcome him back but had a small warning ahead of the game.
“He’s excited,” said Hodgson. “The important thing for Luke is to not play the game too many times in his head before he gets to it.
“I know five weeks out has been a long time for him and he wants to contribute to our performance. He needs to just make sure that he’s ready to go on Thursday.”
Gale may have been out of action since February but he has still been an active part of the squad in training, according to Hodgson.
The Hull boss said: “He’s been very good. We have our opposed sessions where they run the shapes of the opposition and Luke’s been leading that.
“He’s been guiding the education of people like Ben McNamara and Joe Lovodua, who have been in the halves in his absence.
“He’s good to have around the organisation – he’s full of bounce, he’s loud, he’s a bit of a joker as well.
“But we’ve missed him on the field even if we have been getting the results, so I’m looking forward to him getting out there again.”
Hull are on a three-match winning run in all competitions and, as well as the return of Gale, they could be boosted by Darnell McIntosh and Kane Evans coming back from injury and suspension respectively.
However, Hodgson expects the clash with Wigan to be a difficult encounter.
“It’ll be quite a physical war of attrition,” he predicted. “It’s going to be a game that goes the 80 minutes, I’ve no doubt.”
