Gold Coast SUNS High Performance Manager Alex Rigby has given an update on some of the club’s long-term injured players as they transition into their off-season programs.

Rigby stayed behind with the rehab group on the Gold Coast and said the players had just finished an intensive three-week training block.

“We’ve been lucky enough to have access to just the rehab boys and a couple of extra guys that stayed behind so they’ve been going through a really tough block,” Rigby told the Qscan Injury Update.

“The main focus has been just keeping the boys together and obviously going through some pretty hard challenges.

“We felt it was a great opportunity for the entire group that stayed back to put a really hard block of work in and set themselves up for the off-season period so it’s been a great challenge for them.”

Key members of the long-term injury group are the players returning from ACL injuries – Connor Budarick, Rory Thompson, Matt Conroy and Jarrod Witts.

“Budarick, Thompson and Conroy have put in a mountain of work over the last three weeks,” Rigby said.

“We finalised that work the other day with a 2km time trial and all three of them produced some really solid times which would give them some great confidence leading into the off-season.

“Wittsy is going really well, he’s slightly behind those guys but is breathing down their neck and chasing them.

“He’s started to do some agility work on the track which has been really pleasing for him.”

Rigby said all players were tracking well in their rehabilitation and were on track for a pre-season return

“Given the last three weeks of really intensive training, all of those guys will just transition into a normal off-season program,” he said.

“Obviously the ACL group will be doing some modified agility work but all of them will have some pretty strong targets for their return in November/December.”