Helping winger George Jennings recover from a serious knee injury has been a team effort at Melbourne, with his NRL skipper Christian Welch one of his biggest supporters.
After more than a year sidelined Jennings is looking to make up for lost time and secure another contract to stay in Melbourne.
The 30-year-old returned for the Storm last round in their win over Wests Tigers and is hoping for another crack when they host Manly at AAMI Park on Saturday night.
Suffering an ACL injury in the opening game last year, Jennings then had complications with his knee cap before facing another frustrating setback with a skin infection.
"It was pretty rough just trying to rehab and get over that infection as well," Jennings said.
As well as the support of his fiancee and young son, Jennings said captain Welch was rock solid.
Welch did his Achilles in the same game but after already dealing with two previous ACL injuries knew what Jennings was up against in the rehab room.
The pair were soon joined by star fullback Ryan Papenhuyzen, who is still to return from a shattered knee-cap.
"Obviously you don't want that to happen for anyone and I think if you want to take positives out of that, being around them really helped," said Jennings, who has also played for Penrith, Parramatta and the Warriors.
"Welchy's had a few ACLs and when I got the results back he was the first one to text me and gave me tips on what needed to do and I'm pretty grateful that I had him."
Before the injury Jennings was a regular starter on the Storm flank, scoring 11 tries in 18 games in 2021 including their preliminary final loss to Penrith.
In his place Kiwi Olympic Sevens import Will Warbrick has made a claim on the jersey, last week bagging four tries against the Tigers.
"I'm signed until the end of this year, don't have anything for next year so definitely keen to hopefully get another contract," Jennings said.
"I'd love to stay here but all I can control is playing good, consistent footy and training hard and if it works out, it works out."
