Injured Wallabies skipper Liam Wright is eyeing a Spring Tour return to play after shaking his latest recovery setback.
Wright, 26, became the 89th man to captain Australia when he lead the Wallabies out against Wales in July but has battled a troublesome shoulder since being subbed off in the 54th minute of their 25-16 win.
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Initial assessments in July revealed a bicep injury requiring surgery before rotator cuff concerns prevented Wright joining Joe Schmidt's TRC squad.
"It's going well (but) it's been quite frustrating, I put a lot of pressure on myself to get back as soon as possible and unfortunately there's been quite a few setbacks," Wright told reporters on Monday.
"It's been quite a process but we're pushing hard for Spring Tour, just getting it as strong as can be and re-integrating into rugby and contact.
"Initially a lot of the issues were that I couldn't get any range of motion lifting my shoulder forward and a good solution there was to have a bicep tenotomy.
"The range of motion's been good since that bicep tenotomy and from there it's just trying to get strength in the shoulder cuff. Now we've got a good lead up of about seven or so weeks until Spring Tour to get it as strong as possible."
Speaking at a Queensland press conference to announce his one-year extension at Ballymore, Wright told reporters he would "continue to grow" alongside Les Kiss and his Reds team mates.
"I'm really enjoying what we're building as a team and I just love being here - it's a great place," Wright said.
"We focused a lot on closing the gap between us as players in the squad and being able to step in and fill the role the team needed.
"We won a few more games against the Kiwi sides, we made the final again but we want to go a lot deeper than that - we (want) to challenge and be the best team we can be."
Earlier, the Wallabies announced their squad to tackle New Zealand this weekend with returning Queenslanders Hunter Paisami and Fraser McReight set to feature.
