Robbie Deans lauded Rob Horne for his unbendable mental steel after recalling the luckless young centre to the Wallabies squad on Thursday.

The uncapped Horne endured months of rehabilitation to overcome a chronic hamstring injury which threatened to end his international career before it even began.

Doctors initially suspected Horne's hamstring troubles were back-related but, after undergoing a battery of tests and visiting countless specialists, the classy No.13 was diagnosed with a rare physical imbalance.

"It was unconventional. There was a weakness in my structure," Horne told AAP after being named in Australia's 30-man squad for the June Test series with Fiji, England and Ireland.

"It was really just a fundamental lack of core functioning and glute control and glute firing.

"We had to develop a program where I could start switching on my glutes so that, when I'm running, my glutes are firing and I'm more pushing off the ground rather than pulling."

After being forced home from Australia's under-20 World Cup campaign in Japan in 2008 with a groin strain, Horne suffered further heartache when he broke down again in Tokyo before the first game of the Wallabies' spring tour last year.

"It was a tough period, to experience the emotional high of getting selected for my first (Wallabies) tour and then having to fly home by myself," he said.

Horne is still not out of the woods and must devote each and every day to carefully managing his body to ensure he is right to play on weekends.

Earmarking the 20-year-old as a potential long-term replacement for injured former Test captain Stirling Mortlock, Deans said Horne's woes would be "incomprehensible" to most players.

"What Rob has had to overcome just to put himself back out there on the playing field, let alone in the frame, has been significant," Deans told AAP.

"When you have an imbalance - which resulted in recurring injury - there's an awful lot of work that's got to go in just to get you back to square one.

"First of all you've got to nut out what the need is, then you've got to do all the work and, ultimately, you've got to start believing again.

"It was a tough moment for him in Tokyo last year when he tore his hamstring.

"He'd just got himself back into the frame, having had an injury history, and then to get the injury at that point before he had his moment and having that realisation that he'd slid back down the mountain ... he was almost below the start point again.

"But in a pretty short period of time, really, he's been able to turn that around.

"That adversity will serve him well going forward and I think that shows in the way he's playing.

"He's actually stronger for the experience he's been through and he values what he's got. He'll never take anything for granted."

Deans said Horne possessed all the qualities required to fill Australia's "critical" No.13 role.

"He's obviously got speed, which is a great asset as a player, but also he's very good in the way he uses his speed," the coach said.

"Defensively, he's willing. He's aggressive. He plays above his weight to that end.

"And obviously when you've got the ball, speed is a great asset as well. He runs great lines.

"He's got a great opportunity now and the opportunity to push on.

"There's no doubt given his age profile that anything's possible for him."

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