Su'A recovery on track for Broncos despite ankle setback

Broncos forward Jaydn Su'A is on track to play the club's final trial against Gold Coast on March 2 despite suffering a minor setback after re-injuring his ankle prior to Christmas.

New coach Anthony Seibold is a huge fan of the 21-year-old back-rower, whose stellar 2018 was cut short when he broke his ankle in the 26-6 round 18 loss to the New Zealand Warriors.

Su'A had returned to light field work on his return to pre-season training but reinjured the ankle in a training warmup.

He has been doing much of his rehab off his feet and on the training bikes but Seibold said he was not concerned that he would miss the NRL season opener against Melbourne.

"Jaydn had a bit of a setback but he is progressing really well and all being well we are hoping he will get one trial in before the season, but if it is a risk we will be patient with him," Seibold told NRL.com.

"Our performance staff are taking away his running load and he is doing rehab at the moment so there are no real concerns."

Su'A, who made his debut for the Broncos in 2016 as an 18-year-old, emerged as a regular member of the Broncos' top 17 last year in the wake of season-ending neck injury to Maroons and Test forward Matt Gillett.

He has been named in the Maroons emerging squad and will take part in a training camp on the Sunshine Coast this weekend.

South Sydney had targeted the New Zealand-born forward before he re-signed with the Broncos until the end of 2020 and Seibold is looking forward to coaching him.

"I love Jaydn Su'A. I coached Jaydn in a Queensland emerging squad and Queensland under 18 team and I think all the members of the Broncos and people who have watched him play can see that he has got considerable talent and potential and is a very powerful athlete," Seibold said.

"I had a good connection with him when I coached him, and certainly at Souths we showed some interest in him.

"We have got a fair bit of depth in the back-row with Jaydn, Matt Gillett coming back, Alex Glenn an international and David Fifita, who jumped out of the ground and had a very good rookie season. There is a fair bit of competition for spots there."

Seibold said five-eighth Anthony Milford and Gillett, both on the road back from shoulder surgeries, were on track to play the trial against the Gold Coast Titans.

"Milly is going great and is in 80 per cent of our training now other than our high collision contact stuff, and it is the same with Matt Gillett," Seibold said

"There are no concerns from my end or our performance staff around Milly or Gillo. They will both play in the Gold Coast trial. There are no doubts about that."

Milford's application to his recovery has impressed the coach.

"The thing I am particularly pleased with about Milly is his body composition. In the Broncos 1.2km shuttle test that they have done here at the club for many years he broke his personal best time by 17 seconds," Seibold said.

"He has done a lot of hard work over the off-season and the pre-season and wants to be an elite halfback, and that is the challenge for Milly.

"He needs to improve his physical conditioning and I think he has done a really good job so far with it."