Canberra have been boosted by the return of lock Shaun Fensom for their home NRL clash against Cronulla on Sunday, but they expect to have to wait another week before Josh Dugan is declared ready.

There were high hopes at the Raiders this week that their star fullback would make an early recovery from a shoulder injury, suffered in round three, but Dugan wasn’t named in coach David Furner’s 18-man line-up on Tuesday.

A further assessment will be made after training on Thursday, but Furner wasn’t confident of a Dugan return.

“I don’t think so at this stage,” he said.

“Shaun was probably the closer of the two, but certainly Duges is fighting hard to get back.

“He’s doing a great job.”

Fensom was injured in the same match as Dugan against the Sydney Roosters, going down with a torn bicep.

His return is a handy boost for the Raiders, who have been decimated with injury so far this season.

The heart-breaking loss of skipper Terry Campese for the season has forced Furner to look again to the halves combination of Josh McCrone and young Sam Williams, which will get its first run for 2012 against Cronulla.

Furner has also signalled an NRL debut for Matt McIlwrick, who has been named on the bench.

He replaces Travis Waddell, who has been pushed out of Furner’s first-choice squad for the first time this year and back to feeder club Mounties.

“I’ve spoken to Travie about what he needs to work on – game time is a big one and just looking at his passing game and his running game. He just needs to play good football,” said Furner, adding that he faced a “good stint” with the feeder club.

“And Sammy has played a lot of football with Matty so that combination at nine and seven is going to be pretty crucial.

“Cronulla being up there with the Brisbanes and the Melbournes as one of the consistent sides in the competition, we have to play a certain style, we’ve obviously got to be aggressive and we’ve got to defend well.

“So we need those type of players.”

Cronulla are looking to extend their winning streak to six matches against the Raiders at Canberra Stadium.