ANTHONY Watmough has taught himself how to run again just one month after convincing himself that his NRL career was over.

The high-profile Parramatta Eels forward has also spoken of his battle over the past four years with debilitating knee pain of which was exasperated by a controversial leg twist by Melbourne’s Jeff Lima in 2013.

Without a medial ligament to support his knee, following years of wear and tear, Watmough required weekly painkilling injections in his debut season for the Eels this year.

By mid-July, the 32-year-old could go no further, pulling the pin on his season in order to undergo career-defining knee surgery.

But after taking his first tentative steps back onto the training paddock last month, Watmough was left certain his 13-year NRL career “was done’’.

“When I first started putting any pressure on my leg, it was as though it was on fire, it was a burning sensation,’’ Watmough said.

media_camera Anthony Watmough is ready for season 2016. pic Mark Evans

“From my knee down to my ankle, was just on fire. I said to the physio (Josh Rigg), ‘I’m done.’

“I thought the cue was in the rack for me.

“Josh said: ‘Just trust me.’

“I was a bit sceptical at the time, I went home to my wife and told her, ‘I think I’m done — I can’t run.’

“I thought if that was to be the end, well I guess that’s life, I’ve had a good run.’’

But sticking to a regimented yet lonely schedule of 6.30am wake-up calls for physiotherapy, gruelling bike and weights sessions, Watmough has slowly built-up the muscles supporting his knee, which had previously been inactive for the past four years.

He has gone from being unable to hop or jog, to slowly upping the intensity from a two-minute jog to an impressive 7.5km last Monday.

“There’s been some dark times on my own this pre-season,’’ Watmough said.

“It’s been a new experience and one that I needed to get the body back to where it needs to be.

“I’ve had no medial ligament for the past four years, so they (surgeons) had to go in and pull it up and reattach it.

“That was why the burning sensation was there, I was trying to use these muscles I hadn’t used for so long.

“I’ve pretty much had to learn how to run again because I’ve virtually been running on one leg for the majority of the last few years, when I first tore my medial ligament and then it went when I got crocodile-rolled in a tackle (by Lima) a few years ago.

“To realise how far off I was running on two legs, it was actually a good feeling to feel muscles and certain pains that I haven’t felt in years.’’

For the first time in five months, Watmough will return to the fulltime training squad with his teammates next week.

The former Test and NSW representative forward says he has high hopes both for himself in 2016 and for an Eels squad flush with much-required experience.

“It’s a shame that it (knee surgery) happened this year because I wanted to have a different impact at Parra,’’ Watmough said.

“But it’s exciting times for myself, we’ve got some things to prove and I’m looking forward to it.

“If you look at the players we’ve brought in and not taking away from the people that were there, we’ve got more seasoned-players here now.

“There was a very young team here last year and if you saw the way the boys are training now, its lengths above where we were last year.’’