Blake Ferguson says he is hungry to return to the State of Origin arena as he prepares to make his NRL return from a foot injury.
Ferguson’s only hope of adding to his one appearance for NSW will be in game three next month after the right foot fracture playing for the Sydney Roosters ruled him out of the opening two matches.
On Tuesday, the 25-year-old was named to return in the centres against the Warriors on Saturday in his first match back since March.
Although changes to the Blues side will depend heavily on how they fare at the MCG next Wednesday in game two, Ferguson will nonetheless have an additional two matches against St George Illawarra and the Gold Coast Titans – on top of the clash with the Warriors – to prove to NSW coach Laurie Daley he’s worthy of a call-up.
“It was good to watch it (Origin I), it made me more hungry to give it a shot,” said Ferguson, whose made his Origin debut in 2013.
After undergoing foot surgery, Ferguson’s initial diagnosis was that he would be out for four months.
However intense rehabilitation, including a two-week trip to the United States to consult with Philadelphia-based specialist Bill Knowles, helped him return to the training paddock well ahead of schedule.
“It was more about how to use all my body parts instead of just using my foot and just making sure a recurrence of the same injury doesn’t happen,” Ferguson said.
“It was very intense, I was training five hours a day, a few sessions a day.
“It was intense but enjoyable at the same time. I was learning new techniques and it was one-on-one, it wasn’t like there was a whole team there, it was just me and Bill Knowles doing our thing.”
Ferguson said he was close to making his comeback over the last two weeks but will make a timely return with the Roosters missing their representative stars this weekend.
He hopes to pick up where he left off given at the time of his injury – suffered against Canberra in round four – he was showing signs of discovering his form of old.
“The way I set up the start of the year was just to build my game on my defence,” he said.
“And I thought I did that and I felt before I got injured I started attacking a lot better and I was getting through the game a lot easier.”
