The kitchen may be too hot for burns victim Albert Hopoate to handle, but the young NRL star feels much more at home on the field.
The 23-year-old Canberra player spoke on Wednesday about the grade-two burn he suffered after a bottle of olive oil spray left in an oil trap caught fire and exploded on his arm.
“There wasn’t anything I could do besides just letting it heal,” he said.
“The main thing was to make sure it wasn’t gonna get infected.”
The centre credits his wife for his resurgence into the Raiders first-grade side after returning to the squad in round 9.
“I was being a bit sooky and she just kept me going,” Hopoate said.
“She told me to keep working hard and that’s the approach I try to take into the club every week.”
Canberra slipped to three straight losses in a row after going down 16-6 to the Storm in Melbourne.
The Raiders will be hoping to capitalise on home-ground advantage when they meet Newcastle on Sunday afternoon.
Hopoate said the boys had focused on discipline during training.
“At training everytime we dropped a ball, we did 20 burpees as a whole team,” he said.
“Just because when we make mistakes we all get punished and we let ourselves down.”
Superstar fullback Kalyn Ponga will make his return for the Knights after 10 weeks on the sideline following a foot injury.
Hopoate called Ponga the ‘Han Solo’ of the Knights squad but insists Canberra are ready.
“We just gotta take his time away from him,” he said.
“We need to be aggressive.”
The Raiders’ NSW Cup side is currently sitting second on the ladder and Ricky Stuart had no problem calling up halfback Adam Cook in an attempt to bring new energy into the side.
It is only the second time in five years Cook has been named in the starting line-up for Canberra, with his last appearance in round 20 of 2020.
“Ricky spoke to me and said he just wanted me to bring that confidence into first grade,” Cook told reporters.
“Everyone has been really welcoming and yeah it’s really good, they’ve got my back.”
Cook, who will start in the No.7 jersey for the Raiders, said the club needed to get back to what they did best.
“Staying in the game, kicking in the corner and really hunting them and bringing the energy,” he said.
It’s a must-win on Sunday for the Raiders who are currently sitting 12th on the ladder and need to beat the Knights to keep their finals hopes alive.
