The Diesels have been forced to wait a little longer for the highly-anticipated return of inspirational captain-coach Matt Hands.
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Hands was expected to make his return against Kangaroos on Sunday, but ultimately opted against returning to first-grade action after testing his injured pectoral muscle in reserves.
The Junee leader said he wanted to gain more confidence after undergoing surgery before making a full comeback.
He is now expected to line up against Southcity at Harris Park on the weekend, seven months after first suffering the injury.
The prospect of Hands bursting back to football is opportune for a team facing a daunting trial over the next three weeks.
After going down to winless and desperate Kangaroos on Sunday, Junee now has to battle the two best teams in the premiership – Southcity and Gundagai.
Hands said he felt good during his reserves outing, but stressed he was yet to regain full confidence in his body.
“I’ve had long-term injuries before, so it's nothing new,” he said.
“But it’s still a mental battle as much as anything else.”
The Junee skipper had previously labelled the Kangaroos clash a “must win”, stating his determination to avoid heading into a deadly pair of games with a 1-2 record.
It was a tough loss for Junee to swallow, going down to 28-26 at home.
Cameron Hands, Liam Sweeney, Chris Lewis, Thomas Brandon and Tom Diggins all provided Junee a boost on the scoreboard, but ultimately it was not enough.
For Hands, Junee’s early season form has left him slightly perplexed.
The Diesels opened the season with 60 point thrashing of Cootamundra, before finding themselves on the other side of the ledger in a 34-4 loss to Young the week after and narrowly losing to Kangaroos last weekend.
“It’s hard to get a read on how we’re travelling,” he said.
“Cootamundra had a lot of injuries in the first game and it was hard to take too much out of it. It was much the same with the game against Young.”
The Junee skipper said his side would have to play a near perfect game to get the better of Southcity at the weekend.
“It’ll take a very good 80 minutes to even get close,” he said.
“But we have the ability to give it a fair shake.”