Injured Rabbitohs halfback Adam Reynolds is set to heed lessons learnt from last year and won't be rushing his return to football after breaking his jaw in Round 1.
Following an innocuous collision with the hip of Roosters prop Kane Evans, Reynolds' injury looked set to rule him out from anywhere between six weeks to three months – which remains the current timeframe.
It was almost 12 months ago when Reynolds hurt his knee playing in the Rabbitohs' fiery Good Friday clash against the Bulldogs, only to break his thumb a month later during his premature return.
"I rushed back from my injury last year and sort of copped another injury which was a completely different one, either way I'll come back when I'm feeling 100 per cent," Reynolds said.
"You have Cody Walker and Luke Keary steering the ship and doing a job for us so there's no rush. Cody's only three games into his NRL career and he's looking comfortable already so I have no doubt they'll progress over the next few weeks."
Reynolds is targeting a return anywhere between South Sydney's Round 6 clash with the Roosters and their Round 13 fixture against the Titans.
"Fingers crossed if all goes to plan, anywhere from [Rounds] 6-12. I'm pretty confident I'll get back before the 12 mark. At this stage I'm probably aiming for Round 7, Round 8. That depends on further scans and how it's feeling," Reynolds said.
"It was touch and go whether to get a plate in there or not. I saw two surgeons and they both had the same opinion that the plate probably wouldn't be different to letting it heal on its own. Their advice was to let it go and see how it heals."
Taking a positive out his latest injury concern Reynolds has temporarily shaken the 'fat' tag he carries around at training.
Dropping five kilograms from his usual 86 kilogram playing weight Reynolds has been resigned to eating soup and mashed potato after the injury initially happened.
"I'm getting back to eating. Only chicken and pasta but I'm ready to rip into a steak. I've missed my steak. Overall though it's good, I've been running around for a week now and I can't feel any discomfort there," Reynolds said.
"I've lost five kilos in the first two weeks. But I'm putting it back on now with eating and all of the proteins and supplements we get these days, so it helps keep the weight on.
"You don't realise how much you use your jaw until something happens like that. I probably wanted to lose a few kilos anyway which sort of helped. The boys always tend to call me fat at training so I'm happy to get that tag off my back as soon as possible."
