London Broncos may have to wait until the end of January for new signing Israel Eliab to arrive at the club.
The Papua New Guinean stand-off has to go through the process of taking an English test to secure his visa, and he will fly to Australia to complete one next week.
In the meantime, the 24-year-old is training with his former club PNG Hunters to maintain his fitness.
Broncos coach Andrew Henderson said: “Izzy will fly to Sydney on January 9 for his English test.
“The next one in Port Moresby wasn’t until January 30, but hopefully now we’ll have him over here by the back end of the month, before the season starts.
“He’s got a programme to do, and I’ve spoken to him a couple of times to make sure he’s alright.
“We’ve spoken to the Hunters so that he can do a bit of work with them and keep himself ticking over.”
Henderson has continued to be impressed by his new-look squad in training.
He added: “They’ve been a really good group to work with.
“I know it can be like that at this time of year because we haven’t played yet. It’s a honeymoon period and we don’t have the challenge of only 17 players out of 25 playing.
“But in terms of application and attitude I can’t fault the players, and they are buying into what we want to do on and off the field.
“We’ve done a fair bit of community work in the build-up to Christmas and they’ve all been more than happy to do that.
“We’re trying to build the profile of the club in the area and engage with the local community, and I can only commend the players, who’ve really bought into it.”
