Sydney Roosters forward Nat Butcher is pushing to return from a stint in hospital with an infection and play his 150th NRL game in round four.
The Roosters had previously not given any indication of Butcher's timeline for an NRL comeback after he was an unexplained, last-minute withdrawal from their round-one loss to Brisbane.
It later emerged a non-football related issue had hospitalised the reliable second-rower but the Roosters had been reluctant to disclose specifics during his time away.
But on Monday, the club gave the most significant update on his mystery absence yet, revealing the 27-year-old had come down with a non-life threatening infection.
Butcher has since returned to training after missing three games for the 14th-placed Roosters and was seen at the club's Moore Park headquarters on Monday morning.
AAP has been told he is in the frame to return to the field against Gold Coast on Friday alongside Queensland representative Lindsay Collins, who has missed the past two games with illness.
"It would definitely be awesome to have those boys back," said Roosters forward Siua Wong.
"They're a big part of our team and they lead our young boys. If they're back this week, it would be a huge impact for us."
Roosters second-rower Angus Crichton said injuries like Butcher's came with unique challenges.
"Obviously we've had some weird injuries come up," he said.
"When it's those sort of infection injuries or different personal ones that can't be graded with a scan or that kind of thing, you've just got to take it step by step and not push yourself.
"I've had similar sort of things with infection and that happen before. It's annoying.
"You can come back and lose a few kilos, feel a bit weaker, a bit down on your immune system and whatnot.
"But it's just part of being a human. It doesn't discriminate on what job you do, if you're crook when you're a reporter, if you're crook when you're working McDonalds or when you're working at a rugby club, you've got to take time off for your health."
In round one, Butcher had been due to become only the third active Roosters player to reach 150 games for the club after veteran winger Daniel Tupou and captain James Tedesco.
Once an elite junior prospect, Butcher has played his entire career at the Roosters and was a member of the club's last premiership-winning team in 2019.
He has the chance to bring his milestone up in front of the Roosters' home crowd on Friday night.
"It would be good if he can come back and celebrate that," Crichton said.
"He debuted a similar time to I did over at Souths. He's a year younger than me too, so he's been tipped as a first-grade footballer for a long, long time.
"He's worked at hard at his craft and deserves all the accolades he gets."
Roosters forward Spencer Leniu is expected to line up after dislocating his finger mid-game in Friday night's 14-6 loss to the Warriors and playing on.
"That's just Spencer for you, he's sort of that fireball of energy every time he carries the ball, he carries the ball as if he's going to pop out the other end and he pretty much does every time," Crichton said.
