THE only way is up now for Saints signing Curtis Sironen, who is getting his pre-season training back on track after spending the first fortnight of the new year confined to a quarantine hotel room in Italy.

Coach Kristian Woolf explained last week why the NRL recruit had not been picked for Friday's testimonial game, citing the lack of sufficient running in his legs following that enforced isolation.

Today the 28-year-old described how that hiccup to his training occurred after a short Christmas break to Rome with his girlfriend became a nightmare as soon as he tested positive for Covid-19 at the airport and spent the next 17 days locked in his room.

Sironen said: "It was just like a bad dream.

"We only went for three nights and on the way home on Boxing Day I did a pre-flight test at the airport which proved positive.

"They literally shipped me in a car straight to the quarantine hotel where they must put all the people who test positive at the airport. I was in there 10 days, separated from my partner as I told her to get the flight home to Liverpool, and after that I was still positive, so it ended up being a bit longer.

"It was disruptive to both my break and return to training, but once I got my head around it I tried to do as much training as I could in that little room and make sure I did not fall off too many of those gains I had made pre-Christmas.

"I was shocked because I hadn't had any symptoms. It was a crappy couple of weeks, just a bad experience. I couldn't speak one word of the language.

"It was pretty grim. I went from being on holiday with my partner, who had only just come over to join me from Australia, to being separated straight away.

"I was thankful that my parents back in Australia threw something on Facebook and asked if anyone knew anyone in Rome and they somehow found a friend of a friend, who was an absolute angel.

"She got in contact with me and brought me things like groceries and dropped me off some dumbbells, bands and some exercise stuff too which was like Christmas Day when those things come.

"I probably eat more than the average person I was really lucky to have her, she kept me sane giving me basic things like a kettle and books.

"The woman who worked there said there was 200-250 people in the hotel and they were all Covid positive, while there were only five or six working there to feed everyone.

"I was facetiming a lot of people back home, staying in contact with the club every day did a bit of exercise to kill a couple of hours every day and watched plenty of sport on tv.

"When you get days like that back-to-back you start going a bit mad. I am grateful to be home."

Sironen's partner was only over for a short break and is now back in Australia where she is completing her last year of university.

"I was a bit upset to be honest, frustrated more than anything, bad luck I reckon," he said.

"Whatever could go wrong, did go wrong, in that time. You just have to shake it off - it's a crappy start to the year but it's only up from year

"In another month or so I'll be able to laugh about it. I'm just grateful to be back home and healthy and able to get back to training.

"My partner has another year at university and went back last week so it cut off half of our time together. Whatever could go wrong did go wrong.

"It was a pretty crappy start to the year but it's only up from here I reckon. There are people worse off than me.

"I'm back at it now, getting some strength back in the legs. It was a goal of mine to have a good pre-season and impress my new team-mates.

"It's a little hiccup but it's a long year - there are lots of games and I'll have a chance to show everyone what I'm about."