"How the hell has he come back this quick?"
Carlo Tizzano's rapid return from a pectoral injury has caught many by surprise - even drug testers - as the flanker looks to make one final statement for the British & Irish Lions tour.
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Tizzano returned a month after initially picking up the injury during their NZ tour against the Chiefs.
Remarkably, he played through the pain for the following Blues game before throwing himself into every form of recovery to return for Saturday's clash with the NSW Waratahs at HBF Park.
"It was head down, bum up. I did every single form of recovery you could possibly think of," he told Rugby.com.au.
"I was in a hyperbaric chamber at Studio 2 in Perth. They did red light therapy, ice, rehab, Pump X, sauna; every single form of recovery you can possibly think of, I got it done.
"I've been drug tested twice this week, because I think they caught wind and said 'how the hell has he come back this quick?' It's been outrageous."
Tizzano is committed long-term to the Western Force and re-signed on Thursday until the end of the 2027 Rugby World Cup.
It adds to a core group of Wallabies staying in the west, including Ben Donaldson, Jeremy Williams, Brandon Paenga-Amosa and Dylan Pietsch.
"Core guys, we need to stick around if we want this club to be successful, and ultimately, that's what's going to grow the game here as well," Tizzano believes.
"...I want to grow the game here. I had a couple of Perth-born and bred open-side flankers with Richard Hardwick and Kane Koteka in the Force and I saw those guys and knew that there's a pathway here.
"By me sticking around, that gives younger guys and girls coming through the journey, coming through the system, knowing that there is a pathway here to gold.
"We're really disappointed (with the year) but we're excited for the future...I think people really understand that we know what performance we've put together are good enough and we know there's been, I hope people can see the glimpses of what we have played good footy."
