WARRINGTON Wolves co-captain Jack Hughes is gearing up for an eager return to action.

The second-rower did not feature in the 2020 season before the suspension of matches, in mid-March, due to injury issues but he is hoping to be firing on all cylinders when Super League resumes sometime after June 1.

Hughes, 28, had a double hernia operation upon his return from the Great Britain tour of New Zealand and Papua New Guinea and was expected to be fit for the early part of the new campaign.

“I was progressing in my rehab and then I kind of hit a brick wall for weeks,” said the back rower.

“I was in pain most days and I couldn’t seem to pull through the other side of the pain with the rehab.

“It was a bit mentally tough at that time, especially with not being able to shift the pain.

“With rehab you should progressively get better and it gets easier, whereas I was constantly at the same level of difficulty and pain so I felt I was banging my head against a brick wall at that point.

“I had it in the back of my head that something still wasn’t right.

“So I saw a different specialist and I needed a bit more surgery doing on my groin and I needed to have both my abductors snipped as well.

“There was a lot of tension in my abductors which was causing me a lot of pain.

“The surgery I needed doing in my groin is something that can’t apparently be seen on a scan, so he’s pretty experienced and must know his stuff to know I needed something repairing that you couldn’t see on a scan.

“The fact he’s released both of my abductor muscles and snipped them, to take a bit of tension out of them, feels like a massive relief from how they felt.

“At this point now I’m the best I’ve been for a long time. I struggled with this injury for most of last season so when I say the best I’ve been for a long time I’m including how I felt for most of last season.

“I’ve obviously got a lot of rehab done in the time while we’ve been away from the club and I’ve come a long way.

“I’ve started some progressive running over the last two weeks.

“I’m not 100 percent fit yet. If games were ongoing now I’d probably say I’m not too far away, maybe a few weeks, literally to get myself fit and get some top speed running in, and some change of direction running which I haven’t done yet.

“But I’m feeling good, I’ve come through the other side, I’ve had all the surgery I need doing hopefully, and once I’m fixed I’ll be fixed for a long time hopefully.”

Missing the start of the campaign was not easy for him.

“There’s one thing I hate and it is missing games. I like being out there every week as much as I can,” he said.

“Thankfully in my career I’ve not missed too many games due to injury.

“This is probably the first time I’ve missed a considerable amount of games. With what’s happening at the moment I’ve not missed as many games as I might have done.

“Being off work, I’ve hated being away from things but at the same time it’s given me a bit more time to get myself right for when we get back on it.

“I’ve never wanted to play rugby as much in my life.

“Sometimes when you’re in the thick of it you would do anything for a few weeks off to give the body a rest, but now we’ve had it you don’t realise how much you miss it until it’s kind of taken away.

“The lads are all itching too, they’re all the same, they have never wanted to play rugby so much in their life.”