Manly Sea Eagles coach Anthony Seibold has confirmed that Josh Schuster will make his return to the field this week, making his comeback through the NSW Cup.
Schuster's off-season has been marked by challenges, including a bout of chickenpox, a finger injury and a niggling calf injury, that saw him miss most of pre-season training and the trip to Las Vegas.
Recognised as one of theย NRL's most talented players on his day, Schuster - who is on $800,000 per season - will transition back to the second row this season after a stint at five-eighth due to the signing of former Wests Tigers player Luke Brooks.
However, the incredible form of Ben Trbojevic, who was moved into the starting team for Round 1, has kept him out of the team.
There has been constant speculation that when he does end up making his return to the NRL team, he will have to come off the interchange bench.
โJosh will play reserve grade this week,โ Seibold confirmed viaย The Daily Telegraph.
โHe is right to go, he passed his last running session on Saturday.
โBut because he hasn't played any trials and has had a disrupted preparation, we want him to play reserve grade in the back-row.
โJosh had a calf injury but before that, he had a spiral fracture in his finger and before that he had chicken pox.
โHis first (off-season training) block over six weeks was outstanding but then he got chicken pox just before Christmas and then he broke his finger, which needed an operation, and then he hurt his calf.
โJosh has been ticked off (to return) and we were hoping he might have been able to play reserve grade last Saturday but the physios wanted to be conservative.
โHe will now get a full week's training into him and then play reserve grade on the weekend. Once he has done that he will be ready to be considered for round three. He will train fully (on Tuesday) and then we will get it going.โ
The Blacktown Workers Sea Eagles will take on the Sydney Roosters at Brookvale Oval on Sunday at 13:45 AEDT before the club's NRL game later in the day.
