Nines the litmus test in Elgey's comeback

Titans half Kane Elgey has pin-pointed the Downer NRL Auckland Nines as the time to finally move past the pain of a 2016 season ruined by injury and start to win back the respect he earned in his rookie season in 2015.

Twelve months after suffering the ACL injury that ended his 2016 campaign before it even began, Elgey insists that he is mentally free of any lingering demons but admits the true test will come in his return to competition at Eden Park on February 4

He won't have long to wait with the Titans to feature in the very first game of the tournament against defending Telstra Premiership champs Cronulla and the 22-year-old believes that providing he comes through unscathed he can leave 2016 behind him.

"I think I'm past it but in saying that I haven't played yet so it's hard to say," Elgey told NRL.com of any lingering doubts about the knee.

"Auckland Nines is very fast footy so after that I'll be fine.

"That will be the big stepping stone but I'm not nervous about it, it's more being excited to get out there and play again having been so long.

"It's in the past now and I'm trying not to think about it. Obviously the boys went well [last year] and I'm just hoping to get through the trials and the Nines and hopefully bring something to the team."

Showing no ill effects of the injury through pre-season training thus far, Elgey continued with strengthening exercises over the Christmas break, a program he has been advised to continue for the next three years.

A host of players in recent times have been plagued by recurring ACL injuries that – in the cases of Ben Henry and Kyle Stanley – prematurely ended their careers but Elgey is determined not to suffer a similar fate, the goofy-footer giving his left knee extra workouts by cutting across Gold Coast waves on his surfboard in his spare time.

A standout as Titans' rookie of the year in 2015 when he featured in 16 NRL games and scored six tries and kicked 10 goals, Elgey is in a three-way battle for a starting spot in the halves along with Tyrone Roberts and NRL Rookie of the Year, Ashley Taylor.

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