Sia Soliola reached for his jaw as a wry smile came over his face.
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"All intact now," he said just days out from his first NRL game since fracturing his face almost three months ago.
The veteran Raiders prop doesn't elaborate too much on the injury which almost cost him his season. He's more interested in the young side coach Ricky Stuart has selected for Saturday's final-round clash with Cronulla, one which boasts three players making their NRL debut and Raiders first starter in Matt Frawley.
Adam Cook will start at fullback, while Jarrett Subloo and Darby Medlyn get their first crack in the NRL from the bench.
"There's a lot of excitement and energy around the club," Soliola said.
"When you see blokes making a debut, it's pretty rare that you get a cluster of boys making it together. This is going to be something special for them and it's going to be something special for the club as well.
"We're all riding this wave together."
Soliola suffered a Le Fort fracture in round eight, a sickening head injury which causes the midface to separate from the base of the skull.
He resumed full-contact training earlier this month and don't expect Soliola to take a backwards step in his return - the 34-year-old is confident he's ready once more for the rigours of NRL football.
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"Training with the guys provided me probably the best training to test it all out," Soliola said.
"There's a lot of unpredictable scenarios that we've put in place in terms of the contact that we need. What better way to test it out on just some young, raw kids that are just coming out and they're just full of energy and not as controlled as what I'm used to when you're training with first grade."
Coach Ricky Stuart has rolled the selection dice this weekend, rotating more than half of the team that beat the New Zealand Warriors in a scrappy affair on Sunday.
Sam Williams will captain the side, playing his first NRL game this season. Frawley has also been waiting in the wings all year for his chance.
"Guys like them have just been so crucial for us this year, we've needed a lot of leadership throughout the whole park and these guys have just done if not a more important job in terms of really holding that down for the guys that weren't playing," Soliola said.
"They're quite the glue and a really important piece of the puzzle within this whole club moving forward."
Soliola slots back into a forward pack that will be without rested quartet Josh Papalii, Joe Tapine, Elliott Whitehead and John Bateman.
"That shows a great sign of not only depth but just the buy in...it just shows collective as an organisation how important it is for everyone to play a part," Soliola said.
"We've always spoken about our standards and what's required of each individual as a player and Canberra as a region and as a club should be proud of guys that have put on the jersey here."
James Buckley
James is a Queanbeyan boy enjoying his second stint at the Canberra Times, more than eight years on from his first. In between he's traveled the world, and spent time covering sport in Sydney.
James is a Queanbeyan boy enjoying his second stint at the Canberra Times, more than eight years on from his first. In between he's traveled the world, and spent time covering sport in Sydney.
