End of road to recovery now in sight for unlucky wing Colbon

The Robins winger is in line to face Bradford Bulls at Craven Park after watching the last 15 games from the sidelines following two frustrating injuries.

Colbon broke his jaw after a late challenge by Catalans' Chris Walker during their 16-10 loss in March and then suffered knee ligament damage in training last month as he closed in on a return against the same opposition.

That has seen the ex-Wigan man, who had shown impressive form at the start, endure another six weeks out and, given these things are supposed to come in threes, Colbon will be hoping for an incident-free trip to the ground this afternoon and doubly careful when it comes to his warm-up.

"I don't remember much about the actual incident itself (jaw)," he recalled.

"But the flight home was horrendous. I wasn't able to swallow anything because the jaw was displaced and then having liquidised food for the next six weeks wasn't the best.

"In my first contact session back my knee got twisted in a tackle but that's all behind me now. Hopefully I can kick on and get back to the way I was playing before I got injured.

"I'd rather miss the time I've missed than the business end of the season so hopefully coming back now can give us a timely boost going into the play-offs."

The 25-year-old's return could not have been better timed for Rovers coach Justin Morgan.

He is without injured centres Kris Welham, Jake Webster, Michael Ratu and Chev Walker and utility back Ben Cockayne starts a two-game ban this evening for his part in last week's derby brawl.

Narrowly losing out against their arch-rivals Hull FC has made it a long week for Rovers but they know a swift response against an ailing Bradford team – aiming to avoid a club record 10th successive defeat, their worst since re-forming in 1964 – will almost certainly confirm their own play-offs berth.

Rovers captain Mick Vella (rib) hopes to return after missing the derby and Bradford will look to their own veteran Australian Steve Menzies to inspire them out of their doldrums.

"Little mistakes are costing us but we have shown signs of improving," he said.

"We know we'll probably have to win most if not all of our last five games to get in the eight and if we iron those errors out we can start."