In exciting news for Lions fans, High Performance Manager, Damien Austin revealed that Cam Rayner will be back to full training as early as November.

“Cam Rayner’s progressing really well,” Austin said.

“Had we still been training, he’d be into some skills drills in the coming weeks. But once we come back, he’ll almost be into full training.”

Speaking to Lions media, Austin also mentioned that Harry Sharp and Noah Answerth were closing in on returning to the main group.

“Sharpy is back running and will continue to progress that. He’ll join the boys through their off-season program.

“Noah Answerth is back running. There’ll be some slight alterations to his program, but we expect come January he’ll be back to full training.”

Eric Hipwood is still working on building strength before progressing further with his ACL rehab.

“Eric’s a bit delayed in comparison to Cam,” Austin said.

“He’ll be looking to get back into running before Christmas but his rehab will be a little slower as we focus on his leg strength for the moment.”

Meanwhile, Jack Payne will make a full recovery from a nasty head cut obtained in our semi-final loss to the Bulldogs.

“Jack got split open, there was a fair bit of blood. The cut in his forehead required a fair few stitches, both inside and outside, but we’ll give that time to heal and he’ll be fine.”

Dan McStay has also recovered well from concussion.

“Dan would’ve been right to play this week had we gotten through so he’s completely fine. We just needed to abide by the 12-day protocol.”