So when the 21-year-old returns from a shoulder reconstruction early next season he wants to come back into Canberra's starting side and stay there.

Hingano is expected to miss the first six rounds of the NRL season after dislocating his shoulder in Tonga's historic Test match against the Australian Kangaroos last month.

The youngster can play in the halves and hooker but ankle and knee injuries - which included another setback playing for Tonga earlier this year - limited Hingano to nine games for the Green Machine.

"Some of the boys joked around that I’m only contracted to international teams," Hingano said.

"Unfortunately I've had surgery twice within four months but I don't think any player goes into a game thinking they're going to get injured or try to be cautious of what they do in a game.

"It's one of those ones where it just happens out of nowhere, nobody saw it coming, I didn't see it coming, it’s just unfortunate."

It was a frustrating first season in the capital for Hingano after his time on the sideline stopped him cementing a starting spot in the absence of injured hooker Josh Hodgson.

"Yeah it's definitely frustrating. The thought process was 'Oh man I’m not going to get to do a full preseason with the boys, I’ll be doing more rehab'," Hingano said.

"I’m more of a right now kind of person and this year is kind of the first time I've dealt with a major injury, I'm just trying to be resilient and bounce back.

"It's going to be harder now to try and cement a spot in the starting team in first grade but right now I can only do what I can and tick the right boxes and hopefully be on the field sooner rather than later.

"I'll know when I'm ready to play first grade and when I'm given the chance I want to be ready to a point that I stay there as opposed to going up and down like I have with previous clubs."

The former New Zealand Warriors flyer will be joined on the sideline by countryman Jordan Rapana after he was told earlier this week he'd also require a shoulder reconstruction.

"It sucks to him, I know the pain he's going through, it's the same exact surgery," Hingano said.

"But it’ll be good to have a teammate with me, it's sad to even say that but that's just footy. I'm looking forward to bouncing back with him."

The Raiders began their preseason at Duntroon Military College last week and skipper Jarrod Croker said his comeback from a knee injury was progressing well.

"I've been doing a lot of straight line running, we had the camp last week and did 99 per cent of it and I trained this morning with the boys," Croker said.

"A lot of the fitness stuff at the moment is straight line running so I can do most of it. By December I'll be doing full change of direction and by January I'll be full 100 per cent right to go. I’ll be fine round one."