With his niggling shoulder injury behind him, a re-energised Fensom is licking his lips at the chance to take on the Canterbury Bulldogs forward pack at Canberra Stadium on Sunday.

The 27-year-old broke his arm during pre-season training, but didn't realise it until he was doing weights the following day.

He took just seven months to come back from tearing his anterior cruciate ligament in 2014 and three years ago played the week after breaking his wrist.

It's clear Fensom hates missing games, instead preferring to push through the pain barrier so he doesn't let down his mates.

But he thinks Stuart made the right call in leaving him out of the 38-12 victory over the New Zealand Warriors in New Plymouth last weekend.

Not only did Luke Bateman come in and deputise brilliantly, it has Fensom fresh and raring to go against the Bulldogs pack.

He's come back in for the Raiders along with Sia Soliola (arm), although they've lost Queensland second-rower Josh Papalii to State of Origin.

"When I get out there I don't want to let my teammates down, my body comes second when I'm out there so I just try to push through anything I can," Fensom said.

"I always want to play. If I'm fairly busted I hate not playing. Ricky made a good call last week to give it a rest and let my little niggles recover.

"I think it's paid off this week. I have a lot more energy and I feel a lot better for it, so I think it was a good move."

Fensom was expecting the Bulldogs to come out "all guns blazing", after the Raiders beat them 22-8 at Belmore earlier in the season.

The Canberra forwards dominated Canterbury's highly-rated pack and the Green Machine has braced for a Bulldog backlash.

Even with NSW prop David Klemmer out for Origin duties, the Bulldogs boast James Graham, Aiden Tolman and Sam Kasiano in the front row.

It's a challenge the Raiders' tackling machine relishes.

"They've got some big boppers in their side, especially Kasiano, he's a big fellow, and we're doing work at training to stop him and to stop their other forwards as well," Fensom said.

"He's a big fellow and if he's running straight at you he takes a bit of stopping, but you just need to have that good technique and it's not too bad.

"It's always good to be part of a big game, especially when they're going to be coming down here for a bit of revenge.

"We won last week so we want to start putting a few [wins] together."

Fensom said 21-year-old Bateman did a good job of covering for him last week against the Warriors.

Bateman ran for 112 metres from 15 carries and made 36 tackles in an energetic effort, and he'll drop to the bench with Fensom's return.

"He had a really good game on the weekend, he's still only young and to step up into the starting side and do what he did was very pleasing to watch. I thought he went quite well," Fensom said.

NRL ROUND 12

Sunday: Canberra Raiders v Canterbury Bulldogs at Canberra Stadium, 4pm. Tickets available from Ticketek.