Gun North Queensland Cowboys second rower Heilum Luki has revealed that he won't be fit for the opening game of the 2023 NRL season.
Luki missed the Cowboys push at a premiership which ultimately came up short during the preliminary finals of the 2022 campaign after suffering the devastating knee injury during a Round 14 victory over the St George Illawarra Dragons.
The injury, which occurred just 15 minutes into the game, kept Luki out for the remainder of the season, and the drawn out return timeline on an ACL means he is now no chance of playing in Round 1.
Instead, Luki revealed he is targeting a return inside the first six weeks of the season.
"No, not the first game," Luki revealed when asked by club media.
"Looking more like [round] four, five or six."
A Round 6 return would put Luki at around a ten-month return to play, outside of the normal six to nine-month window required for ACL injury recoveries.
Despite the setback of not being fit for the opening game of the season, Luki said he travelling well with the recovery.
"I think almost at six months post-operation, so it's travelling well.
"Running well, it feels good in the gym, feels strong and I'm starting to get into a bit of lateral stuff at the moment."
The injury is the first serious one of his career, and comes at a bad time for the Cowboys moving into the 2023 season.
Tom Gilbert's departure to the Dolphins, combined with the issues facing Luciano Leilua, who is currently subjected to the NRL's no-fault stand-down rule and likely to miss the start of the season unless his case can be moved up, will see the Cowboys short on second row depth to start the 2023 season.
It's likely that Coen Hess will be required to shift back to the edge to start the season, where he could play alongside Jeremiah Nanai, although new signing Jack Gosiewski and World Cup sensation Taniela Sadrugu could both yet fight for minutes in Townsville.
The Cowboys open their season with a home game against the Canberra Raiders, before playing the Brisbane Broncos, New Zealand Warriors and Gold Coast Titans throughput the month of March.