League: Knee injury holding back new Warrior Price

If Warriors league recruit Steve Price wasn't feeling bad enough, there is always Monty Betham on hand to make him feel worse.

The as-of-Friday married former skipper of the Warriors let the captain-elect know exactly where he stood.

"Monty's had a few goes at me. He says: 'We've got this bloke from Australia and he can't even train'. It's good. It's always good to have a bit of banter."

Betham means well, but a pre-Christmas injury scare to his knee that caused Price to miss last year's NRL Grand Final had Price anything but smiling.

"The really disappointing and frustrating thing was when we thought it was coming right and I could get back into the group, then we have a couple of hiccups," Price said.

And while hitting the hills and the roads might not be everyone's idea of a good time, Price admits that his immobility is driving him stir crazy.

"I hate it mate, I hate it," he spits out.

"Touch wood, but I haven't had too many injuries throughout my career and it is so frustrating. Particularly being at a new club. You just want to get out there and get to know the boys and let them get to know you."

But this is a picture that will warm the hearts of Warriors fans and management: Steve Price back in training after a pre-Christmas injury scare threatened to delay his debut for the club.

Price says he's now back on track for a start in the Warriors first trial match against Parramatta in six weeks.

"It was a great workout. I did pretty much everything apart from the sand hills.

"My knee's pretty good. I upset something before Christmas so I had to pull my foot off the throttle a bit, but it wasn't my medial so that was good."

Price thinks he might have aggravated his knee because he was favouring his right leg during rehab, throwing his natural balance totally out of whack.

"As you get older you get to know your body a bit better and it didn't feel right. I told the physio, he had a look at it, got a couple of tests done and it showed up as a bit of irritation."

The break over Christmas, where Price took a flight to Toowoomba to spend time with his mum and reunite himself with his wife and three children (his wife got a Carlos Spencer book inscribed with a message from Spencer which said: "You should have chosen the rugby player"), was probably the best thing that could have happened for his ongoing rehabilitation. And not just on a physical level either.

The news keeps getting better: on Saturday his family will join him in the Balmoral, central Auckland, house he purchased.

"All the furniture is also arriving from Australia.

"It will work out really well timing wise because it's a couple of weeks from when school starts so it will give everyone a good couple of weeks to get settled in."

It is easy to forget just what a transition Price has made, temporarily leaving his family to set up home in a new country and settling in to a new club after 12 years of unstintingly loyal service to the Bulldogs.

Sometimes it's the little things that seem the strangest.

Like the black sand of Bethell's Beach. "I got down there and said 'where's the beach?' The guys said 'this is it'."

He could have just as well said: "Where's the summer?"

- HERALD ON SUNDAY