Written by: Steven Williams

St George Illawarra hooker and goal kicker, Mark Riddell will be ready to play next season despite reports he's considering giving the game away.

Riddell was recently fined $3000 for missing a pre-season training session and The Daily Telegraph reported Riddell as saying, "I'm not sure I want to play at the moment."

Dragons CEO Peter Doust cited 'personal issues' as being the reason for Riddell's uncertainty and said Riddell will resume training and will be ready to take the field in March 2003.

"He had some concerns about this, that and the other but it was drummed out of proportion." Doust said.

"He's definitely back on deck - he just needed a couple of days to take a few deep breaths and he's right now."

Doust rejected speculation that there were any specific problems which had also seen other high profile players such as Anthony Mundine and Nathan Blacklock leave the club in recent times.