Titans captain Ryan James will subject himself to four additional torture sessions as he continues his recovery from a knee injury ahead of round one of the Telstra Premiership.
James and Keegan Hipgrave (hamstring) were the only players not considered by coach Garth Brennan for Saturday's final trial against the Broncos at Cbus Super Stadium.
In that match, Tyrone Peachey and Shannon Boyd will wear their new colours for the first time.
A week ago James doubted that the medial ligament injury he suffered would recover in time to play the season-opener against the Raiders but his return to the training paddock on Wednesday provided optimism.
The 27-year-old was able to complete additional conditioning work at the end of the session and will subject himself to further punishment next week.
Thursday will mark four weeks since James suffered the injury in an innocuous bump during an opposed session.
"Unfortunately I don't get to play in the trial this weekend and won't get a trial in before round one which isn't ideal but I'll just have to back my previous fitness to get through it," James said.
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"I got through everything and got a bit of fitness in at the end which wasn't on the schedule.
"When the boys have got their down week I'll be trying to get through a lot more fitness. I'll probably have four sessions that week and get it back up to NRL standard."
Upon his arrival at the club heading into the 2018 season, Brennan slated James for a shift from the middle of the field to the left edge but a horror start to round one which saw the Raiders forwards run roughshod through the Titans ruck saw an immediate reshuffle.
The result was James spending 18 of the next 23 games back in the front row.
The addition of ex-Raider Shannon Boyd and continued development of 19-year-old Moeaki Fotuaika gives James the belief that he will spend more time on the edge during 2019.
"That's where I was planning to go last year," James said of his positional switch.
"With big Shannon Boyd coming on board we've got an international front-rower, and with young Moe Fotuaika training the house down and playing pretty good in the trial last week there's plenty of depth.
"We've also got someone like Max King who hasn't played footy for a long time and I was pretty impressed with how he played last week as well."
Halfback Ash Taylor has recovered from shoulder surgery to be able to rekindle his partnership with five-eighth Tyrone Roberts on Saturday with Bryce Cartwright given another opportunity to impress on the left edge.
"It's been a long time since we’ve looked at the squad and seen 25 genuine first-grade players," James said.
