NRL: Rabbitohs hopeful Ross will get all clear on neck injury within weeks

Ben Ross injured his neck playing for Cronulla Sharks a year ago. Photo / Getty Images

SYDNEY: South Sydney remain confident a disappointed Ben Ross will still play a big part in their NRL campaign after his comeback from a neck injury was put on hold for at least another month.

Ross met his specialist on Thursday hoping for a final clearance to resume his NRL career after suffering the serious neck injury playing for Cronulla 12 months ago, but he didn't get it.

Instead, he will be reviewed again in four to five weeks after the specialist indicated the bone graft in the former Queensland front-rower's neck had continued to strengthen but was not yet 100 per cent solid.

"The good news is it continues to improve, he's just about right, it's significantly better than it was a month ago, but it's just not a hundred per cent and they're going to wait till it's a hundred per cent before he plays," said Souths coach John Lang.

"I think the good news is that he is going to be right, it just continues to improve so I think that's much more important, that he's had a successful operation and he's going to be right to play footy.

"Obviously the long-term thing is the most important thing.

"When you have an injury like that, having a full recovery is far more important than when you're going to play football."

Ross was too upset to speak to the media after his hopes were raised last week that he was close to a final clearance.

"He probably had himself built up, Benny, and he's not a shrinking violet, he's not backward in coming forward so he's probably trying to urge the surgeon along a little bit," Lang said.

"In the end he's got no choice and we've got no choice but to be patient.

"In the end it's up to the surgeon. If he was good enough to do the operation to fix his neck, I think he'd probably be good enough to make a decision when he's right to play."

The 29-year-old trained with the Rabbitohs' squad on Thursday but that will be the extent of his involvement in the next month.

"They probably feel they don't want to expose him to the out-of-the-ordinary type things that can happen in a game, so he can virtually do everything (in training) but he's not going to go in and do full contact," Lang said.

In better news for Souths, forward Dave Taylor completed the session and reported no problems for his strapped left ankle.

"He's no worries," Lang said.

- AAP