THE two pre-season games have shown that big prop Alex Walmsley is fully fit again and raring to go after an off season operation on a hip injury that had troubled him for virtually the entire 2014 campaign.

Walmsley paid tribute to the club’s physio team who helped him get through last year - meaning that he was able to play his part in that Grand Final triumph.

But now he says the ‘drug’ of success is something that he is craving again this term - with the Super League season up and running next week.

Walmsley revealed that his hip started troubling him in March – but thought it was something and nothing until he broke down in the Catalans home game .

He said: “Full credit to the physio staff who have got me through some frustrating times but it is part of rugby and I was lucky enough to manage it and get through to the end.

“When you have something that is stopping you training it plays on your mind. But I was lucky to have physio staff monitoring my load in training and doing things that got me through the games.

“I’d have been devastated had I missed that final – a few boys missed out and you could see the faces of the boys who had missed and what it meant to them.

“For me, to run out there at Old Trafford and finish the way we did without those injured players made it a little bit more special.

“If you ask 99 per cent of people we had been written off and even some of our own fans did too.

“It’s like a drug, an addiction, especially for the boys that went there for the first time. It was an unbelievable feeling.”

But that is history now, with 2015 being a blank canvas for Keiron Cunningham’s men to show their artistry.

But the giant prop knows 11 other teams in the comp will be gunning for them.

“We are going into the new season as champions and that will make it tougher,” he said. “We will have to take the intensity of pre-season forward and raise our game.

“You always need to test yourself in pre-season and we have had tough games.

“Players wanted to impress the coach and I have to say the squad looks as good as it has ever been - certainly since I have been here.”