Cronulla star Nicho Hynes could be ready to make his NRL season debut in Round 3

A calf injury on the eve of the season stalled Nicho Hynes’ 2023 debut but the Dally M winner is closing in on a return.

Reigning Dally M medallist Nicho Hynes could be back for Cronulla as soon as Round 3 as Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon declared his team had to ‘park’ its disquiet over Wade Graham’s four-week suspension.

Reigning Dally M medallist Nicho Hynes could be back for Cronulla as soon as Round 3 as Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon declared his team had to “park” its disquiet over Wade Graham’s four-week suspension.

Fitzgibbon gave the positive update on Thursday after his gun playmaker was ruled out of the opening two rounds of the NRL season with a calf issue.

He’s back running but the coach said Hynes remained a “day by day” proposition with a tricky injury.

“It’s not a big injury, it’s just in a really delicate position in his calf,’’ Fitzgibbon said on Thursday.

“He’s back running. It’s almost day by day, week by week, sort of stuff. Not full-term training but he’s back on his feet.

“You need to train to an appropriate level that he would be put through a game, so once we get back up around that, then we can start making a call on exact times.

Nicho Hynes receives his NRL All Stars man-of-the-match award from Greg Inglis. Picture: NRL Imagery

“We’ll have a shot next week, but whether he gets there, I’m not sure.”

Hynes looked ready to start 2023 where he left off last season when he named player of the match in the NRL All Stars game in New Zealand.

But he also had his preparation for the season interrupted when his mother, Julie, was found guilty of heroin supply and jailed.

The Sharks take on Parramatta on Friday night without veteran Graham after he was suspended for four weeks for a high tackle in Round 1.

Graham tried to have his charged downgraded and Fitzgibbon maintained he still disagreed with the verdict.

“I disagree with the charge reckless,” he said.

“We weren’t trying to absolve Wade of any responsibility in what could have been a careless tackle. He was upfront about that.

Wade Graham was suspended for this high shot.

“There were basically zero reckless high tackles in the season last year and to say that was the worst, we thought we had a good chance to disagree with that.”

Fitzgibbon, like Graham, said he hoped the verdict set a new benchmark for high tackles this season.

“You’d like to think so, but they’ve changed these things before,” he said.

“It’s done now and it’s pretty important we park it. We don’t want to carry on about that stuff.”

The coach said Graham had adjusted his tackling technique, but “got it wrong” in Round 1.

Originally published as Cronulla star Nicho Hynes could be ready to make his NRL season debut in Round 3