When you've battled through two knee reconstructions before making your NRL debut, there's no shame in having a few frayed nerves.
Then after having to twice go through a slow and arduous recovery process, you're struck down again in a pre-season trial with an injury to the opposite knee.
For some players, one knee reconstruction is enough to smash their confidence and end a career.
However for the Broncos' Jordan Kahu, confidence is contagious and the 24-year-old is now slowly finding his feet at NRL level.
Selected at fullback in place of an injured Darius Boyd for the season opener against South Sydney, Kahu's main contribution came in the form of spilling a spiralling bomb shortly after half-time which eventually led to a try to John Sutton.
The New Zealand-born backline utility was able to quickly brush aside his shaky start to the season with a faultless display against the Sharks in Round 2.
Any less of a player may have shirked at the pressure and responsibility of atoning for a forgettable display in the previous week, but Kahu lapped up the challenge and caught every high ball that came his way, capping off his performance with a game-saving tackle on Jason Bukuya in the dying minutes.
In a strange twist of irony, had it not been for Boyd's achilles injury he suffered in training late last year, Kahu may have found himself toiling away in the Intrust Super Cup for the majority of this season.
His effort against the Sharks earned him Brisbane's players' player award which helped boost the confidence of the fledging first-grader, who has 15 NRL appearances to his name.
"I back myself under the high ball. When I was tired (against Souths) I got a bit lazy and didn’t get my feet to the ball to catch it," Kahu said.
"Obviously Round 1 was a big learning curve for me; I made a few mistakes that were crucial in the game.
"I worked on that (practising under the high ball) last week and I guess I did that in the game against the Sharks and hopefully I can do that again this weekend.
"Defensively we've been training really well, last week's performance in Sydney was pretty good so we'll get a lot of confidence out of that and hopefully our execution and ball handling gets a bit better this week."
Kahu received a ringing endorsement from teammate and 301-game veteran Corey Parker, who believes his display against the Sharks will provide him with an extra shot of confidence which copped a dent in Round 1.
"Jordy hasn't needed to prove to anyone other than himself that he's worthy. We all believe in him and I think as you saw Friday night, he's certainly a player that can play some footy and he'll be better for it," Parker said.
"I can't speak for him personally but I can only imagine going through the injury run that he's been through that there probably are times when you doubt your confidence because of some of the setbacks you've had but we all believe in him."
