Match fitness. It's that thing that NRL players need before they can get back to their best.
Roosters down resilient Panthers
Five key points from Roosters v Panthers
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But coming back from two surgeries and an off-season break Josh Mansour needed none of it to reach his explosive best against the Roosters on Monday night.
In fact, in his first game back since shoulder and ankle surgeries over the off-season, the Kangaroos winger finished with more run metres than any of his teammates and more tackle breaks than anyone else on the field.
"I thought my carries were pretty pleasing," Mansour told NRL.com.
"I am happy with myself but I can't get a big head, it's just the first game.
"I just want to continue my good form and stay consistent throughout the year."
Mansour, who injured his shoulder in Round 6 last year against the Rabbitohs, declined to have surgery at the time and carried his painful injury all through the NRL season and then into Kangaroos fixtures.
It was a decision he made for the good of his team, but now, after reconstructive surgery, he is just happy to have a stable shoulder that doesn't threaten to pop out at any point.
"The shoulder feels great, it pulled up sweet," he said.
"We have a great medical team here who got me on the park much earlier than expected so I'm very grateful for that.
"I'm very relieved to get that first game done."
Against a team with superstar talent right across the park, Mansour did much more than just go through the motions on Monday night.
He finished the match with 219 metres off 20 runs while also setting up a try for Jamal Idris with a sensational leap over Shaun Kenny-Dowall.
However it wasn't enough to snatch victory from the Roosters.
Another superstar performance across the other side of the field had a large part to play in that, with Blake Ferguson winding back the clock to produce a standout performance for the Tricolours.
"We gave him a bit too much space out there and he took it with both hands and really showed us up," Mansour said.
"We'll look at that next time we play him and hopefully we can get a better result."
The winger his team weren't clinical enough to earn victory over the Chooks.
"I think we just dropped too much ball, didn't complete our sets and got a bit unlucky," he said.
"But in saying that the Roosters were on their game today.
"We didn't play to our full potential, hopefully we can fix it all up before our game against Newcastle this week."
