It took a phone call from Wayne Bennett to persuade North Queensland centre Brent Tate that he had the mental strength to make yet another comeback from knee surgery.

Footage of a distraught Tate breaking down in the Australian dressing room during halftime at the 2010 Four Nations final, after rupturing his cruciate ligaments for a third time, gave viewers an uncomfortable insight into the private hell of one of the NRL good guys.

Tate admits he questioned whether he could go through another lengthy rehabilitation and was ready to call time on a career that has featured a premiership and Queensland and Australia berths, despite being blighted by serious neck and knee injuries.

But it was a lengthy conversation with his former Brisbane mentor that cleared his mind of any retirement thoughts.

And Tate said the opportunity to work under Bennett again with the NRL All Stars side on the Gold Coast gives him belief that 2012 will be a good year.

“The big appeal for me about this week was being under Wayne’s coaching and guidance,” Tate said.

“I hold him in such high regard and I cherish being able to sit down and have a one-on-one with him.

“The great thing about Wayne is his wisdom and how he puts things in simple terms and sometimes life is not as bad as it seems.”

And it was those words of wisdom that forced Tate into believing he could still play at the highest level.

“The last injury really crushed my confidence,” he said.

“Wayne told me to take my time on making a decision and that he’d support me but it had to be my decision.

“I let things calm down and had the operation and he was right – he’s a wise old man.”

Tate made a surprise return at the back end of last season for the Cowboys, but admits he was off the pace.

His comeback was a remarkable one with a surgeon having to take the unusual step of using a graft from his quadriceps muscle to perform the operation.

Normally grafts are taken from a hamstring to rebuild the knee, but this was not possible as it’d already been used in previous procedure.

“When I had it before I could cope with the pain quite well, but this time it was off the dial,” Tate told AAP.

“I was pressing the morphine button like no-one’s business, it was insane.

“But my mum always said what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

“I have a fresh start this season and hopefully I can get back to where I was two years ago.”