Australian backrower Anthony Watmough said he never turned his back on the Test jersey, it's just that he didn't think his body was up for another battering.

Watmough was a surprise selection when Kangaroos selectors named their squad last week, not because he didn't deserve to be there but because the Manly and NSW star had supposedly been ruled out of the Four Nations due to injury.

"I'll be ready to go - I wasn't a few weeks ago, I was no chance," Watmough said as he arrived in camp in Sydney on Thursday.

"For me to even tell myself I'm no chance of playing in an Australian team was a big thing because you never toss that out and give up an Australian jersey for anything.

"But the body was bashed, the neck was gone, the heel was wounded - I couldn't even walk.

"I had a week off and then got bored and then started training and doing rehab and actually training hard for once in my life and the body came good pretty quickly.

"I was lucky Tim (coach Tim Sheens) gave me a couple of weeks to get right and then he rang and Tim said `if you pass medical I want you in my team' and I said `I'll be fit and ready to go for you'."

Now Watmough says he is desperate to repay Sheens for the faith he showed in him, particularly after what the Sea Eagles enforcer said was a poor NRL campaign.

"It wasn't the greatest year in my career and for Tim to have faith in me and pick me in his squad is a massive boost for the confidence," Watmough said.

"As I said to him, I've got some unfinished business this year."

Watmough meanwhile gave hope of an improved 2011 for the Sea Eagles as he welcomed the return of fullback Brett Stewart, who was cleared of sexual assault charges last month.

Stewart was charged after an incident following Manly's season launch in March 2009, his 18 months of hell finally coming to an end with the delivery of the not guilty verdict.

Watmough said he had caught up with the former NSW and Test star - who missed most of 2010 due to injury - and admitted the relief within the playing group at Manly.

"Like he's been saying and like the boys have been saying, we knew 18 months ago what the judge and the jury announced a couple of weeks ago," Watmough said.

"It's just great to see him back with a smile on his face and his family smiling again.

"Nothing can repay the two years what he went through - he can get on with his life now."

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