Soliola will slot back into the second row on the right edge for the Raiders' clash against Parramatta at Canberra Stadium on Saturday following the one-week suspension of Elliott Whitehead for tripping.

It will be his third game in the No.12 jersey after Whitehead spent the opening two rounds of the NRL season filling in for Raiders captain Jarrod Croker at centre.

The versatile 30-year-old's also been used in the middle of the park off the bench so far this year.

Soliola has plenty of experience - having played at international level for both New Zealand and Samoa and in premierships with Super League club St Helens.

But linking up with the NRL's most exciting right edge of wing Jordan Rapana and centre Joey "BJ" Leilua - who are collectively known as the bromance "Leipana" - as well as five-eighth Blake Austin has been an educational experience for the Raiders' spiritual leader.

"You've got 'Leipana' and Austo there and they've helped me grow and learn new things, like learning new lines to run, so for me given my age it's nice to still learn a few things," Soliola reflected on his return to the edge.

But when asked if he needed to do some extra work on his passing game to help him fit in, Soliola felt that would fall on the heads of the attacking trio.

He had a clear message to the three musketeers of how he was expecting them to treat an "old bull".

"Not really, I'll just tell Blake to pass the ball straight to those dudes and I'll just get off the back of them because they're really exciting players - Blake, Rapa and BJ," Soliola said.

"If anything the old bull can just get off the back of them and get a pass and then score a try. That'd be nice wouldn't it. So boys, that'd be nice."

Soliola's versatility has been an asset for Raiders coach Ricky Stuart since he moved back to the NRL from St Helens.

He won the Mal Meninga Medal as Canberra's best-and-fairest in 2015 playing second row and has also played at lock, prop and scored a try last season covering an injury in the centres.

Soliola was excellent off the bench through the middle in the one-point loss to the Brisbane Broncos last weekend and Raiders lock Luke Bateman said he would be a "big loss" to that part of the field.

He made 32 tackles and had 12 runs for a total of 115 metres in his 40 minutes of game time.

Bateman said the other middle players - Clay Priest, Joe Tapine, Shannon Boyd, Junior Paulo and Dave Taylor - would need to pick up the slack and cover Soliola's absence.

"We're lucky we've got guys in the middle that can play big minutes - Priesty, Tapine, even our big boys Junior and Boydy get through their minutes pretty well," he said.

"But definitely Sia's a big loss in the middle so we'll have to step up."

The Raiders are giving star hooker Josh Hodgson til the last minute to prove his fitness for the Eels game after a sternum injury forced him to sit out most of the second half against the Broncos.

Hodgson didn't take part in wrestling training on Wednesday, but did train with the main group later on.

If he's not fit enough to play, then the Raiders will have Adam Clydsdale as their only recognised hooker.

"He's still touch and go I guess. He didn't wrestle today. I think they're just going to wait and see how he pulls up in the next couple of days," Soliola said.

NRL ROUND FIVE

Saturday: Canberra Raiders v Parramatta Eels at Canberra Stadium, 5.30pm. Tickets from Ticketek.

Raiders squad: 1. Jack Wighton, 2. Nick Cotric, 3. Jarrod Croker (C), 4. Joey Leilua, 5. Jordan Rapana, 6. Blake Austin, 7. Aidan Sezer, 8. Junior Paulo, 9. Josh Hodgson , 10. Shannon Boyd, 11. Josh Papalii, 12. Sia Soliola, 13. Clay Priest. Interchange: 14. Adam Clydsdale, 15. Luke Bateman, 16. Dave Taylor, 17. Joe Tapine. Reserves: 18. Jordan Turner, 19. Scott Sorensen, 20. Dunamis Lui, 21. Zac Santo.

Eels squad: 1. Bevan French, 2. Semi Radradra, 3. Michael Jennings, 4. Brad Takairangi, 5. Josh Hoffman, 6. Clint Gutherson, 7. Corey Norman, 8. Suaia Matagi, 9. Kaysa Pritchard, 10. Tim Mannah (c), 11. Manu Ma'u, 12. Tepai Moeroa, 13. Beau Scott (c). Interchange: 14. Nathan Brown, 15. Daniel Alvaro, 16. Frank Pritchard, 17. Siosaia Vave. Reserves: 18. David Gower, 19. Peni Terepo, 20. Jeff Robson, 21. George Jennings.