Wests Tigers veteran Chris Lawrence could take a step towards reaching his 250-game NRL milestone after the ill-discipline of centre Joey Leilua.

A four-game suspension for Leilua’s petulance could result in Lawrence being recalled to a position he played for most of his 15-year career.

Former Tigers captain Lawrence, who was on 246 games when he was dropped three weeks ago, trained in Leilua’s spot during Tuesday’s field session.

The versatile Michael Chee Kam also spent time in the centres, however, Moses Mbye believes Lawrence, 31, will get the nod.

“A player of his calibre, he’s an extremely experienced player,” Mbye said on Tuesday.

“He’s played for his country.

“Chrissy’s winning the race for that one.

“He’s been training hard and everyone knows what sort of player he is.

“He’ll do a great job.”

Having moved from Canberra to Concord over the summer, Leilua had started the year in strong form under coach Michael Maguire.

However, he was a ticking time bomb in the Tigers’ loss to Penrith on Saturday and detonated with an off-the-ball high shot on Panthers fullback Dylan Edwards.

Having apologised to the playing group after the match, his teammates publicly rallied around the Samoa international on Tuesday.

“It’s about just letting him play his brand of footy,” Mbye said.

“He’s got a long highlight reel, Joey.

“It’s about focusing on his consistency.

“We certainly lose a lot without Joey out there.

“It might be a good period for Joey just to really work on his body and get extremely fit now and come back into our side.”

Halfback Luke Brooks insisted Leilua would learn from his mistake.

“It obviously wasn’t the best thing to do but we’ll support him, he’s our teammate,” Brooks said.

“Everyone makes mistakes on the field and he’ll learn from that… He probably won’t do it again.”

Meanwhile, in a week where player angst towards referees has been a hot topic, winger David Nofoaluma expressed his regret over an incident during the game.

Nofoaluma and Leilua reacted angrily to what appeared to be miscommunication between a sideline official and the referee in their loss to the Panthers.

“I definitely shouldn’t have reacted to the referees,” he said.

“That was out of control and for myself, I played a bit too much into that.

“I’ve learnt from that.”