Cronulla Sharks star Chad Townsend says he’s super excited by the possibility of the NRL season returning on May 28.

It comes after the NRL received another boost over the weekend with the New Zealand Warriors granted an exemption to fly to Australia on May 3 to prepare for the restart of the season.

Yesterday, New South Wales Deputy Premier John Barilaro admitted he was “so confident” with the work of Australian Rugby League Commission Chairman Peter V’landys in trying to get the game back on that date.

With the NRL’s bid to return to the park strengthening, clubs are set to return to training in the first week of May and Townsend told The Continuous Call Team he and his teammates are raring to go.

“It’s going to be like Christmas to be honest,” Townsend said.

“I know personally I’m super excited.

“Obviously it’s been a bit of a tough time being up in the air with not having a set date.

“Now that we’ve got something to work towards it’s really put a spring in a lot of the team’s step and making sure that we’re ramping up our training come May 28.”

The format to complete the remainder of the season is still yet to be confirmed by the NRL Innovation Committee – Project Apollo.

Townsend has played 166 NRL games for the Warriors and Cronulla after first debuting for the Sharks in 2011.

Click ‘PLAY’ to hear the full interview below.

Image credit: Cronulla Sharks website.