Jones-Buchanan – who last week graduated with a sports science degree from Leeds Metropolitan University – believes a positive mental approach is the key to a quick return from the hamstring injury he suffered in the win over Les Catalans Dragons in France 13 days ago.

He said: "I have had big experiences of injuries before, when I was a youngster. I know how to mentally prepare for it.

"There's other things in life that keep your chin up, like graduating last week. but obviously rugby league is my life as well and it's my job and it hurts a great deal when you're injured.

"But there's a lot of evidence that stress causes injuries and if you believe negative things, negative things tend to happen.

"I'll just stay positive, work hard, do what the medical staff tell me to do and get back as soon as I can."

He added: "Like with anything in life, staying upbeat is important. People tend to get what they wish for.

"I am a firm believer that if you are a negative person, negative things will happen to you.

"If you have got high belief and big goals, you stay positive and work hard towards them, I believe that good things will happen.

"Obviously you have down turns, but you have to learn how to deal with them and put them behind you as quickly as you can.

"You have to learn from them, so they don't happen again. One of the good things about being injured is that you tend to learn from the experience.

"You learn what your body can and can't do and what it needs to do when bad things happen. Obviously, that makes for a speedy recovery."

Describing the nature of the injury, Jones-Buchanan said: "It's an eight centimetre tear, a grade two injury. I went to hospital to have it scanned and I had an epidural in my spine, which is like a cortisone as well.

"The method of that is it relaxes the hamstring muscles so it stops me from irritating them any more and hopefully I can get a bit more flexibility during my re-hab.

"I have had that done and I am progressing pretty quickly. I haven't done a great deal, to let it mend, but the medical staff are going to approach it pretty aggressively, given the amount of time we've got left.

"I want to get back and get a game in before the play-offs and I'm confident I'll do that, but I have got to be really careful about not making any mistakes, because if I do make a mistake and I have a recurrence, that'll finish my season.

"I don't want that to happen, especially with Toops (Clinton Toopi) and Hally (Ryan Hall) missing. I feel for Toops a lot because I know how hard he's worked to get right.

"He's come back and something else has done him again, but that's the nature of the sport.