Due to his size and lack of games beforehand I would say 5 to 8 months is a reasonable timescale for him to be match fit. If he doesn't start featuring occasionaly towards the end of June/ start of August is when I'll start questioning things.

I disagree.5 to 8 months seems like an excessive amount of time to get fit especially for a youngster.If he has a problem with training and weight it needs to get sorted or show him the door.It was a similar thing with wheeler with his attitude to training and his weight.If you cant motivte yourself when you are at one of the best rl clubs about then its time to pack it in.

From a normal injury - 5 to 8 months sounds about right, depending on what it was. I had to retire due to injury (so according to the red bit I'm more qualified to talk about it

) it's not just as simplistic as motivation and "training the house down" but getting your body used to impact again, getting used to peaking at the right times (aka not in training) and generally "getting back in routine" can take a good 3 months beyond recovering from a physical injury. Then, when you consider Savelios case is far more complex than a broken leg for example - your assuming that it has something to do with his attitude shows you have never been in the unfortunate position of having to re climb the mountain.

Oh, and weight and fitness are too different things. The trick is to get both for forwards, not one or the other. I bet our conditioning team could get him running a marathon soon enough, but that's not what were going for here.

I totally understand the argument for patience with Savelio (and from my perspective that's to do with the future role he plays in the team rather than fitness related issues.) But I do think doing 20-30 minutes this week could of been helpful to the team.

People often underestimate the fitness of top level RL players and the time required to get to full match fitness. There's a reason pre season is often around 4 months long, bearing in mind the vast majority of players will have had a full season of playing to maintain fitness levels too, Savelio has had none of this. Savelio was building from a very base level of fitness and needs time to get upto match fitness, 5 months is not a long time to get to the levels required.

I completely agree with this, ironically I would have been playing him if I was picking the team. However, it does not change the fact that in terms of boosting his levels to the required fitness the work he is getting through at U19's is far more beneficial for him individually.

As an ex royal marine i certainly have been in the position of having to reclimb the mountain as you say ,and i know what sort of condition you can get your body in physically and mentally in 6-8 months.Masoe had no pre season whatsoever but managed to play most weeksand is getting fitter with playing matches.

In which case I bow to your superior knowledge, perhaps he should be ready then.

Don't be so hasty - he's an ex-Marine, he probably got kicked out because he was so unfit

Its still dissapointing though that Sav has not been given a superleague game to test his progress, I would have thought 6 to 10 weeks to play in the first team. We,ve only got 13 weeks before the play offs, Sav needs to customise to the first team plays, maybe he will make an appearance in a few weeks because we need him on the superleague field.

Anybody who can get there in the first place has my full respect.

Bookies think otherwise and so do I!

Fair play - but there's one more key point - the worst injuries are the ones where you miss the step up (u16 --> u18 for example) because you don't have to retrain to be where you were (like masoe) but you have to train, and catch up to a level you were never at before. It's much harder to hit a new level of fitness, then it is to regain it!

Could go either way. Depends on which attitude Saints decide to adopt.

Well thats me done i'm afraid. No chance i'm attending Friday to see puddings like walker and Lms getting knocked back 10 metres on every drive. Will let my neighbor use my season ticket this week then i'll go about canceling it next week. We have a star in Savelio.

Last time we put out such a weakened squad we beat Leeds

Although that squad did have Lomax, Jones, Swift, Laffranchi and Savelio in it. . . . .

At least we have Walsh this time!

I think that while we're missing Amor giving the big minutes at prop, NB will be reluctant to put Savelio in. A tired Mose and Sav in defence together would be a disaster. LMS can't provide enough grunt to support them.

LMS couldn't provide enough grunt to push out a wet fart at the minute.

He is the single most frustrating player we have at Saints in my opinion. A fat lazy wannabe who tries to mask his inadequacies with back-slapping and high-fives. An absolute moron who has somehow managed to steal another contract from the club. He is a disgrace.

The point i was trying to get across is that it shouldnt take as long as what you are saying to get back to fitness and that there is something else holding him back wether it be attitude or brown doesnt like him for whatever reason.If we had 4 props fit it wouldnt matter but surely he could be used for 30 min in a game for impact or used when masoe comes off.Very strange.Players can comeback from ruptured cruciate ligaments now and reach full fitness in a lot less than 12 months nowadays.

Indeed. Keiran Dixon at the Broncos is a case in point. He ruptured all three ligaments around his knee while playing for England Knights in October last year and he's about a month away from playing again.

Do that you certainly won't be missed. Saints don't need supporters like you. Saveilo will get his turn when he is ready shame you won't be there to see it when it happens. Bye

The troubles we are going through at the moment are all part of the fun of being a supporter. Sport would get really boring if supporters had nothing to moan about.

Quite - I'm not sure 2nd place is season ticket burning territory just yet!!!

Seems to me everyone are pinning their hopes up on a young Savelio. No pressure then. We should be looking to the 1st teamers to dig us out of this hole at the moment not a young lad with not much SL game time and is just back playing over serious illness.

I hear that wheeler was injured reading the teamsheet. It was on a heavier paper than usual and the text was in bold.