After initially being told his season was over, Castleford scrum-half Luke Gale said yesterday that he is ready to step back in to help his club reach a maiden Super League Grand Final.

The 29-year-old England international, who is expected to be England’s first-choice No 7 for the end-of-season World Cup, underwent emergency surgery to remove his appendix just 14 days ago but is poised to play against St Helens in Thursday’s first play-off semi-final.

“I’m taking each day as it comes,” he said after being named in the Super League Dream Team for the third successive year after a record-breaking season with the table-toppers. “I keep pushing it day by day and it’s progressing slowly but surely.

“I’ll have a late fitness test on Wednesday and hopefully get the green light.”

After a first diagnosis in hospital, Gale was told both his Grand Final hopes and his World Cup dream were at an end, although he was initially treated for indigestion.

“I rang my physiotherapist on the Monday and, when I told what sort of pain it was, he prescribed Gaviscon,” Gale said. “He won’t thank me for that.

“The pain was pretty tough and it got gradually worse. He rang 111 for me and they came and hooked me up to a drip. The doctor said straight away: ‘You’ll have to have an operation tonight’.’

“It was a bit of a shock to be honest. I thought it might have been a bit of food poisoning, I didn’t have a clue. I felt a bit sick and I put it down to a gym session.

“After pressing on my stomach, she said: ‘Look, your season is over, you won’t be going to Australia.’

“Then someone else then came in and assured me it wasn’t that bad but for two hours I laid on the bed and thought: ‘Everything I’ve done this year has all come to an end’ and it was quite hard to take.”

Gale, who had keyhole surgery, will take encouragement from the experience of Hull forward Chris Green, who made his return from an appendectomy against Castleford last Friday, just three weeks on from his operation.

“The doctors said three weeks but we in rugby league tend not to listen to doctors,” Gale added. “It all went well and I’m feeling fit and healthy again.”