UNTIL last year, the longest Luke Cresswell had spent on the sidelines due to injury was a month out with a broken hand.

That all changed on March 25, 2018 though after suffering what turned out to be a season-ending knee injury in Barrow Raiders' 36-22 win at home to Sheffield Eagles in the Betfred Championship.

This week marked a year since Cresswell underwent surgery on his patellar tendon as well, which was followed by nearly 10 months of training on his own in the gym before he could run again.

And having finally made a long-awaited playing return for Barrow away to Rochdale Hornets last month, Cresswell is happy to get back to doing what he loves.

"Personally, it's nice to overcome a pretty bad injury and get back playing," said Cresswell. "You have moments where you don't think you're going to get back, so it's good to be back."

Recovering from the injury was arduous both physically and mentally, and even though he got himself fit for pre-season training Cresswell was unable to do any contact work until February – by which time the 2019 Championship season was already under way.

Even though he told Raiders head coach Paul Crarey he would be able to play against Rochdale, the former Barrow Island amateur admits it was still a surprise to be called into the team to play.

Despite one or two nervy moments – as is to be expected after so long out – he earned plenty of praise from Crarey for his overall performance in that 20-8 defeat.

Cresswell believes he is still settling back into the demands of Championship rugby league though and, as one of the club's brightest young prospects, is eager to continued developing his game.

"It kind of came a bit quicker than I expected because I made myself available for Rochdale – that was my target date – and I was comfortable with playing, but I didn't think it was going to come that quick," said Cresswell.

"Through injuries I got a chance, and it was good to get that first game under my belt and reassure myself.

"It's been tough getting back into it with having 12 months out and getting used to playing. You think it's going to be natural, but it does take time.

"Especially at this level because we're playing at such a good level so it's not as easy as it was, but I think I'm slowly but surely getting there."

All being well, Cresswell is set to feature again when Barrow head to Leigh Centurions tomorrow aiming to bounce back from last week's Coral Challenge Cup exit at home to York City Knights.

That match saw Tee Ritson make his long-awaited return from injury off the interchange bench in place of Cresswell, who is enjoying having the West Cumbrian around both as competition and as someone else to learn from.

It is a similar situation with Papua New Guinean back Stargroth Amean too, and the trio get plenty of runs in training at full-back and on the wing.

Cresswell has been using his time out to observe them as well.

"Paul obviously wants us to play a certain way and sometimes it's good to look at people to see how they're doing it to help yourself improve," said Cresswell.

"I've kind of had that while I've been watching and when it's just yourself playing full-back you've got no-one else to bounce off. It's good to have them there to look upon and give advice."