The Bulls may be all-but propping up the Super League table after opening the season with morale-sapping back-to-back defeats, but that hasn't shaken Mick Withers' typical Australian optimism.

The prolific try-scoring full back, who makes his return against Wigan at the JJB Stadium tonight from the thigh and shin injuries that wrecked his Grand Final in October, has his own take on the club's shocking start to Super League X.

"We are not too bad, we are only two points off third spot," said Withers.

"But we don't want to get any further behind than that. We can easily still finish first in the table but we don't want to give any more ground away now, especially with the games we have coming up. It is a long season, everyone is going to have a bad run, let's just hope that is our bad run out of the way.

"The start we have had has shocked everyone but we are capable of turning it around just as quick, and Wigan is a good place to go to do that.

"I think they are struggling just as much as us. We will go there and I think we'll win.

"We had a good chat and looked at things on the video after the Widnes game and we are optimistic now. We have seen where we went wrong and it did hit home - we have to win this game."

Withers has scored a remarkable 97 tries in 135 appearances for the Bulls but has been dogged by injuries in recent seasons, culminating in the quadriceps muscle tear he suffered during the opening minute of the Grand Final defeat by Leeds.

A pain-killing injection had little effect and he hobbled through to half-time before calling it quits.

Television cameras showed him slumped forlornly alone in the dressing room as his team-mates unravelled in the second half.

His thigh might have healed, but the pain of that day is still with him and he is now itching to get back out on the field.

"That dressing room was a lonely place. I was gutted. It was a tight game that we could have won.

"It has been a long wait to return but it has been a matter of getting it right. I have come back too early a couple of times now and it has done no one any good."

Withers is expected to slot straight back in at full back, with Stuart Reardon shifting to the right wing and Lesley Vainikolo returning to the left wing after sitting out the defeat at Widnes with an ankle injury.