Wallabies halfback Tate McDermott intends to return for the Queensland Reds before the end of the Super Rugby Pacific season but can’t give an “exact date” for when he will play again after having his hamstring reattached to his pelvis.
McDermott suffered the injury in September last year playing for the Wallabies, and hasn’t played at all for the Reds this season after suffering “little setbacks” on the road to recovery following his surgery.
However, with five games of Queensland’s regular season campaign remaining before June’s finals series, McDermott can see some light at the end of the tunnel.
“I remember speaking to the media earlier on and I was really positive with how I was going,” McDermott said on Tuesday at a promotion for a joint-ticket initiative between the Reds and the NRL’s Dolphins.
“I was feeling good, but we had just a couple of little setbacks around the hamstring I got reattached
“It’s been a bit of a long journey, to be honest. It wasn’t doing what it was supposed to do really, but (I’m) feeling really good now
“I’m hoping to get a game in before the regular season finishes but I still can’t give you an exact date.”
McDermott said he had “integrated back into the team training”.
“I’ve just got to start putting the final pieces of the puzzle together, but I’m positive that I’ll play a game for sure,” he said, adding there had been “complications with learning to run again” and ensuring that the muscles around his hamstring did not do “too much or too little”.
“I’ve been incredibly fortunate to never be injured in my career, and never even had a hamstring strain or anything like that, but I’m well across what it looks like now and I’ve been in the gym for six months trying to get my hammies going again.”
The sixth-placed Reds, who were beaten 36-33 by the Blues in the weekend’s “Super Round”, host the fifth-placed ACT Brumbies on Saturday night at Suncorp Stadium.
“It’s a huge fixture, The top six make the finals … and the boys have been playing really well,” McDermott said.
“It’s not all doom and gloom … but we’ve got to make sure that we get the results to cement our spot in the finals.”
