Queensland enforcer Sam Thaiday back at full-strength Sam Thaiday attends a fan day at Moore Park in Sydney. SAM Thaiday is ready to make his mark on State of Origin, revealing he is finally back to full strength after shoulder surgery and is twice as strong as he was last year. Thaiday battled a shoulder injury during last year's series, pulling out of Game Two and carrying the complaint through until an end-of-season reconstruction. The injury was so bad he could barely do any work in the gym and could only bench-press 80kg. Now the 112kg enforcer is back at full strength, bench-pressing 165kg and he is ready to step up his Origin workload with stints in the front row against NSW tonight. I don't think I did bench-press until the end of the year. I think I was maxing out at about 80kg," Thaiday said. We had testing the other week and I'm back to where I was. I bench-pressed 165kg. I'm happy to be back. And in my mind now, I know it's strong and I'm confident in it. It's made me feel a lot better and now I'm not second guessing myself on the field now. With two specialist props at NRL level in the side, Thaiday will see some time defending in the middle for Queensland, who are underdogs to take a lead to the second match of the series at Suncorp Stadium on June 26. Thaiday has welcomed the challenge to step into the front row where he has played a starting role for the Broncos at NRL level for nearly all of 2013. Not only has he warmed to the idea of playing front row, he is even talking about the impact it could have for the Maroons as they look for a first win in Sydney since 2010. While Thaiday has spoken about the personal toll his first year as captain at the Broncos took on him, he has not spoken in depth previously about the debilitating injury that he bravely battled through for half a season. It was not until Thaiday had surgery and rested his weary body that he realised what an enormous physical toll his shoulder had taken on him. "It's kind of weird that it took surgery for me to actually stop and really have a rest," he said. I couldn't really do anything for six weeks. For the first week, I sat on the couch and couldn't do a thing. I was in that much pain after the surgery because it was pretty brutal. I'm feeling a lot better for it now. To have the six weeks off, of doing nothing, has done amazing things for me and I feel a lot fresher and I've really enjoyed the start of the year. Thaiday has form at ANZ Stadium, awarded man of the match when the Maroons beat the Blues 24-12 in Game Two to secure the 2009 series. He feels his best Origins are still ahead of him. "I'm a little bit older, I'm a little bit more experienced, so hopefully I can really go out there and nail a good game for the team," he said.