Dolphins second-rower Connelly Lemuelu has returned to training for the first time after recovering from a knee injury.
The forward sustained a knee injury in October last year during the Pacific Championships while playing for Samoa against Australia.
Lemuelu's injury saw him damage his MCL and PCL. However, he has now revealed that he hopes to be back ready to go for The Dolphins' season opener against rivals, the North Queensland Cowboys.
He also hasn't ruled out competing for the club in the Pre-Season Challenge in February, but his availability is currently unlikely.
"I am just sort of easing into it this week (commencing January 8) and next week hopefully get into full training," Lemuelu said via the Dolphins website.
Appearing in 23 games for the club in their inaugural season after signing from the Cowboys, Lemuelu played in the starting back-row position in all but five games - two of which saw him play in the starting front-row.
In these games, he scored seven tries, made 11 line-breaks, 25 offloads, made 608 tackles at a 90.6 per cent efficiency and ran 2219 total running metres (averaging 96 per game)
