FIT-AGAIN Giants winger Jermaine McGillvary (right) can’t wait to get his first taste of action in 2013.
The 24-year-old is expected to be named in the starting line-up for Sunday’s pre-season clash against Widnes Vikings at the John Smith’s Stadium.
He missed last Friday’s trip to St Helens to give him an extra week to recover from post-season ankle surgery.
But having now made a full recovery and no longer feeling any pain – something that wasn’t the case for much of last season – the former Super League Rookie of the Year can’t wait to test himself out and prove he’s back to his best.
“I’m feeling good and ready to get back out there,” declared McGillvary.
“I’ve got my confidence back following the operation and I’ve been training for five weeks, so I need to play to test it out now.
“My ligament has grown back so it’s a bit sore at the moment, but it’s not as sore as last season, which is great.
“I’m really confident for Sunday’s game, I’ve been running on it well and the aim is just to play and get over that next pretty big hurdle.”
McGillvary travelled over to watch his teammates suffer their 26-0 trial defeat at Saints on Friday night.
But despite the defeat, the Huddersfield-born back is sure the squad will benefit from the work-out.
And he remains confident the Giants will show a big improvement on that Langtree Park outing as they look to introduce some new training-ground moves.
“St Helens wasn't too bad and in the first 20 minutes, when both teams had their full team out, it was pretty close,” he added.
“We gave as good as we got and both defences held up well.
“But as soon as the swapping and changing happened they started scoring.
“Yet there were still many positives we took from the game, but there was also still a lot of things that we need to work on to.
“It’s still early days and the first game isn’t for a couple of weeks.
“I suppose we do need to bounce back this weekend and show a big improvement on our performance from last Friday.
“But there were some pretty good individual performances, especially from the young players.
“So hopefully we can build on that and try and get a win against Widnes, although the main thing is the performance and the moves we’ve been working on in training.
“Hopefully we can put them into action this weekend.
“It really is a massive game for everyone who gets the nod this weekend, because there are Super League starts up for grabs.”
