Star Melbourne Storm five-eighth Cameron Munster has revealed he will spend a second season battling with an osteitis pubis injury.
The injury - which refers to pubic bone bruising or inflammation - flared for Munster during the 2022 season, but didn't stop him from playing.
The Queensland and Australian representative had an excellent season for the men in purple, who missed the top four but made the finals before being knocked out of the finals in the first week by the Canberra Raiders in a surprise upset.
He would go onto play with the injury at the Rugby League World Cup, but the time off following the tournament hans't allowed the injury to recover, with Munster telling reporters that he thought it would heal by the New Year, but that he was still battling to regain some of his 'zip.'
"I thought I'd be able to get it all done and dusted by the end of last year," Munster told reporters on Wednesday.
"It's still niggling, I've still got osteitis pubis and I'm still trying to find ways to get used to it and get better and stronger in certain areas.
"At the moment it's getting pretty frustrating - I'm just not feeling that zip or that strength or that power that I used to like doing.
"I'm slowly getting back to it ... but I'm missing that zip at times so hopefully I can get it back before round one."
With little treatment available other than reducing training loads and increasing strengthening muscles in the impacted area, the waiting game for the injury to recover will be one which is a time issue, rather than anything else.
The news surrounding Munster follows a horror 2022 for the Storm, where all of their spine spent time off the park with injury, while key prop Christian Welch missed virtually the entire campaign.
The Storm open their 2023 season with a clash against the Parramatta Eels.