Injured Broncos star Matt Lodge is on track to return from a knee injury in six weeks if the NRL resumes, as reported by NRL.com.
Originally feared to have ruptured his ACL after going down in an incident at training in February, follow up assessment confirmed Lodge only suffered a partial tear, which remarkably puts him in the frame to return in Round 3.
Broncos coach Anthony Seibold confirmed that the 24-year old will be back on the training deck in May if gets the all-clear from the specialist.
"He's progressing really well," Seibold told NRL.com.
"If he gets the all-clear from the specialist in two weeks we'd expect him to be doing some training when we get back on the training paddock in May.
"All going well, as long as there's nothing unforeseen we'd probably expect Lodgey to be there or thereabouts once we start playing again if May 28 is the day.
"Obviously we've got time. He and the medical staff could've pushed it if we were still playing in this period.
"But we need to make sure we look after him in the long term and we've got time to do more rehab and keep his knee in a brace for longer.
"We'll be smart about that, but we've always thought it'd be about 12 weeks and there's nothing to suggest that he won't be available."
While Lodge will give Brisbane a major boost, Seibold said they would not risk his heath by rushing his rehab.
"He's in our leadership group, he's a dominant front-rower," he said.
"He played really consistently in what was a really inconsistent year for us last year so he'd be great addition to get back.
"But we're not going to rush him, he's worked really hard and is progressing as we expect."
