Brisbane coach Anthony Seibold has dismissed concerns David Fifita will be sidelined long term by knee surgery, saying the backrower will play a “large chunk” of the 2020 NRL season.
The Broncos initially gave no timeline on Fifita’s return after revealing last week that the State of Origin forward had undergone an operation several weeks ago to repair a lateral meniscus tear.
The Broncos rolled the dice during the coronavirus shutdown and booked Fifita’s surgery, only for ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys to organise a May 28 return.
There was speculation Fifita could be sidelined from four weeks to four months.
While Seibold could not give a return date for Fifita, he was confident the Queensland forward would be back sooner rather than later.
“David will miss the start, he probably will miss a few weeks,” Seibold said on Monday.
“(But) we have got 18 games to play so we still expect him to play a large chunk of games.
“We will get a better idea when he comes out of his brace in a couple of weeks and get him running.”
Seibold said he would ease Fifita back into the undefeated Broncos with Matt Lodge (knee), new skipper Alex Glenn (hamstring) and Joe Ofahengaue (suspension) set to bolster the pack in their next match.
Tevita Pangai will be one other forward unavailable for the NRL resumption, with three games of a four-week dangerous contact ban remaining.
Seibold said he may have appealed the length of Pangai’s ban if the season had been shortened even further by the coronavirus shutdown.
“We will abide by that decision. That decision was made in good faith when we had 24 rounds,” Seibold said of Pangai’s suspension.
“If the season had been shortened to seven games or 13 games, then maybe you ask the question but certainly Tevita has got to cop his medicine and so do we as a club.”
In the backline, Seibold said winger Corey Oates (rib) and halfback Brodie Croft (shoulder) would be ready for the season restart.
“They have well and truly recovered (but) Brodie has a bit of work to do,” Seibold said.
“He hasn’t been able to do a whole lot of weights so he has to do a little bit of work on his upper body strength the next few weeks.”
