BEN Currie says he has '100 per cent confidence in his knee' as he gears up for his long-awaited return to the Warrington Wolves side at Wigan Warriors on Thursday.

The England back-row forward, who turns 23 on Saturday, has not played since tearing his anterior cruciate ligament in the act of scoring a try against Wigan in the Super 8s loss at The Halliwell Jones Stadium last September.

But the long-road to a comeback is almost over for one of Super League's brightest talents.

"I’m ready to go and looking forward to it this week," he said after training.

"I feel 100 per cent confident in my knee.

"The last couple of weeks I’ve been itching to play and the physio has recommended to give it a bit more time.

"But he’s very happy that I’m excited to play and itching to play, which is a good sign."

Currie has taken a clattering to his legs in training and says he has done everything possible to get himself ready to help out the team at the back end of what has been a poor season.

"I’ve done a bit of contact work in training," he said.

"My very first contact test came a couple of weeks ago, to have somebody tackle my legs.

"The conditioner (Jon Clark) was holding me up top and he asked Bennie Westwood to come and chop my legs down.

"But Bennie refused to do it, saying he wasn’t having that pressure on his shoulders. So they ended up swapping it round and it was Jon Clark who made the tackle.

"It feels just as good as ever now. There’s nothing quite compared to a game but I’ve done everything as close as possible in practice and it feels 100 per cent.

"It’s like after a pre-season for me now. I probably won’t have my full match fitness until I’ve played a couple of games but I’ve done everything possible. I feel fit, I feel ready, for however long they let me play in the game.

"I’ve been doing my own stuff the last couple of weeks with fitness and I’m ready to go.

"I had a chat with Tony Smith yesterday morning after training. In an ideal world and if the team had been performing better and was in a better position, I might possibly have had a game somewhere else first possibly to test the water.

"But he’s very happy and confident with me. I’ve told him how much I feel ready for it.

"I feel like I could do 80 minutes and I’d hope so, but whether the physio let’s me I don’t know."