He's been a minder, bodyguard, hitman and a professor fighting the evils of global warming.

Now Tonie Carroll is the plumber, back from retirement to fix Brisbane's leaking defence and restore some intimidation to the Broncos forward pack.

All going well, the much-feared 33-year-old defender will soon assume his position on the inside of Broncos captain Darren Lockyer as he did so many times in his 216 games before he retired last season.

Soon after declaring he was "ready to go" following his first training run with Brisbane on Wednesday, Lockyer predicted his former minder and bodyguard wouldn't take long to make players think twice about running his way once they got their right side partnership back together.

Not surprisingly given his joking nature, Carroll's shock comeback struck some of his former teammates as a prank.

But after completing training at Red Hill - which included a defensive refresher course under another of the club's enforcers Peter Ryan - there was no doubting Carroll is serious about resuming his NRL career and helping the club fight back from a four-game losing streak against the physical Warriors on Friday night.

"I love playing outside him (Carroll)," Lockyer said on Wednesday.

"That's probably not going to be the case straight away but after a few weeks the potential is he'll be there."

While Lockyer has worked hard on his defensive technique since his tackling was criticised prior to the second State of Origin game in Melbourne, there's no doubt having a punishing defender such as Carroll riding shotgun again will be a big advantage.

"Tunza (Carroll) brings a small intimidation factor," said Lockyer on Wednesday.

"Teams have always worried about where they run if Tunza's out there, that's going to be one positive for us."

Lockyer said players who'd played with Carroll previously knew what he was capable of and were looking forward to seeing him in action again.

"The guys who haven't ... well they've heard plenty about Tunza," he said.

"Obviously he's not expecting to play his best footy this Friday night.

"But he's got to start somewhere and after a few weeks, when he's hitting his straps, whether he's in the ruck or defending inside me, he's going to be a big asset to the team."

Carroll, not a noted trainer, was surprised just how well he got through Wednesday morning's training session.

"I really enjoyed training. It wasn't as bad as I thought," said Carroll, refusing to speculate on whether his comeback would go beyond this season.

Carroll had been selling real estate on the Gold Coast until Brisbane centre Justin Hodges planted the comeback seed last month.

He said he could provide Brisbane with a little more experience and leadership in defence as well as hit the holes in attack.

Would we see some of his famous big hits?

"I'll just be happy to make a few tackles," said Carroll, who featured in a television commercial with Broncos teammates as part of the "NRMA carbonators" team to help fight global warming.

"I won't be going out to make big tackles, I learned that a long time ago.

"You just go out to make your tackles and if you do that, you'll pull a couple of big hits off."

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP