Leroy Cudjoe is set to make his long-awaited return to action in Huddersfield’s reserves this Sunday.
The centre has missed the best part of 18 months through a serious knee injury, but is set to attempt his latest comeback when the Giants’ reserves take on Wakefield.
Cudjoe has played just once since August of 2018, making a solitary appearance last June before heading back to the treatment room.
Such has been the extent of his injury woe that the England international has played just eleven games in two and a half years, with a micro-fracture operation on his knee in August 2018 keeping him on the sidelines.
But Giants head coach Simon Woolford is looking forward to seeing him back on the field.
“He’s all set for the reserves,” he said.
“He’s pretty much ready to go. The plan is to get him half a game, then we will try and get him a full game. After that, we’ll assess where we’re at and how he is feeling, how our form is and so in and so forth.
“Mentally, he is a lot better than before. Our initial plan was for him to play the week after, but we have a bye week in the reserves so he’d have had to wait another two weeks. But he’s worked really hard to get himself ready.”
Woolford was left disappointed with his side’s midweek defeat to Toronto Wolfpack, which saw them knocked out of the Challenge Cup at the first attempt.
However, despite his frustration with the performance, Woolford did concede that two short turnarounds were a contributing factor.
“It was always going to be tough. We’ve gone from a five-day turnaround into a five-day turnaround. After the big performance at St Helens it was always going to be hard, as we’ve had a few light weeks in prep.”