Wallabies back Joseph Suaalii said he would be fit to face the British and Irish Lions in July and August after a month-long lay-off with a broken jaw.
The high-profile signing from rugby league has had a disrupted first season in Super Rugby Pacific with injuries severely limiting his time on the pitch.
"My face was really big for a bit, I was wearing a face mask everywhere," he told reporters after meeting some real lions at Sydney's Taronga Zoo on Wednesday.
"I'll be fully fit. Obviously, had a toe injury, then my jaw and concussion as well. But you know, it's all part of the game.
"It's such an important time for myself and Australian rugby and I want to be playing, so obviously I was a little bit of a nerves but ... I had surgery maybe three weeks ago now and looking good going into the Lions."
Suaalii said he had lost nearly five kilograms due to the difficulties of eating with a broken jaw but had put it all back on again since.
"I've been eating heaps," he said. "Thanks to my mum and my family around me to help me stay on track."
The knee of his Wallabies team-mate Andrew Kellaway's was the inadvertent cause of the broken jaw and the winger feared at one stage that he might be remembered as the man who ended Suaalii's chances of facing the Lions.
"Nobody wants to crash the Ferrari, that's not what anyone wants," Kellaway joked.
"He looks alright, he's doing a lot of talking, which is a good sign."
Suaalii said he felt he had played enough rugby to compete at the highest level against the Lions, adding that he would be comfortable playing at full-back, on the wing or in the centres.
Australia's one warm-up test against Fiji in Newcastle on 6 July was definitely on his radar, Suaalii said, and he could not wait to tangle with the tourists.
"These are the biggest games of my life, I believe," he said.
"Some people play it once in your career, and it happens every 12 years."
The Lions play Argentina in Dublin next week before heading to Australia for seven tour matches and the three-Test series in late July and early August.
Australia boss Joe Schmidt (above) said he knew from his time as Ireland coach just how special the Lions jersey was to the players who wore it and warned the Wallabies would really need to roll their sleeves up to be ready for the Tests.
"They can play in so many different ways," he said of the tourists.
"They can be really physical, they can be square and coming at you. They can get you on the edges.
"They have got the likes of Tommy Freeman and Hugo Keenan, who are so good in the air that you're going to have to be good there.
"We can just try to work as hard as we can, to be as well prepared to understand the threats they're going to bring, and be ready to combat them and also to try to put our stamp on the game a little bit, and take the initiative when we can."
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